We don’t see enough of Octavia Spencer in comedy. She has continually and carefully mixed things up throughout her career – appearing in TV dramas such as ER, The X Files and CSI: NY, before taking home an Oscar for 2011’s The Help – but, she is also a gifted comedic performer. She has previously showcased those skills in most notably in Dinner For Schmucks, 30 Rock and Mom – but now she gets to really stretch those funny wings as one of the three leads in the upcoming Las Madres.
In joining this movie, she will star alongside the already cast Leslie Mann, who is riding a wave of box office success created by the recent double-whammy of Rio 2 and The Other Woman. Mann – gifted at comedy herself – had long been biding her time in small supporting roles in films such as The Cable Guy, Big Daddy and The 40 Year Old Virgin, before taking a larger, co-lead in Funny People (directed by her husband, Judd Apatow). Since then, she has achieved a greater and greater profile with big roles in The Change-Up, and This Is Forty.
Las Madres is still in early development, so details are patchy – but what we do know gives it a sense of being potentially a buddy-road movie, of sorts. The premise has three unemployed friends decide to become bounty hunters to bring in a high profile fugitive, in order to collect the sizeable financial reward being offered. The original script was written by Lona Williams (Scouts Vs Zombies), and is now being re-worked by Pam Brady (Team America: World Police).
Three female friends go after a bad guy. Isn’t that essentially the plot of The Other Woman – also starring Leslie Mann? Yes. Yes, it is – which is slightly concerning. However, Leslie Mann does provide almost all of the most hilarious moments in that movie, and now they have Octavia Spencer joining in Las Madres, too. So, we wait on the edge of our seats to hear who will be in the director’s chair, which actor will play the bad guy, and crucially, who will take the final role in this triumphant triumvirate of comic talent. If the box office performance of The Other Woman is anything to go by, those studio executives can probably hear the cash registers ringing already.
