Elisabeth Moss to Star in Women's Rights Drama 'Call Jane'

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On the heels of her groundbreaking best actress Emmy win for Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Elisabeth Moss has signed on to star in Call Jane, an abortion drama to be directed by My Week With Marilyn filmmaker Simon Curtis.

Robbie Brenner, one of the producers behind the Oscar-winning Matthew McConaughey AIDS drama Dallas Buyers Club, is producing the indie pic along with Jeff Kwatinetz and Kevin McKeon of The Firm.

Set in 1960s Chicago, Call Jane focuses on the true story of an underground network of suburban women who secretly provide safe abortions for women in need pre-Roe v. Wade.

Moss will play Jane, a married woman who is unexpectedly pregnant and discovers the underground group of women.

The screenplay, based on the true story of a 1960s movement called the Jane Collective, was written by Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi, co-creators of The Resident, the upcoming Fox drama set to premiere in January.

“This script [for Call Jane] is commercial and entertaining, but it’s also really relevant to what is going on with the world today,” Brenner told The Hollywood Reporter. “Women’s rights are important and no one should have the right to control a woman’s body. And that such an idea can be challenged today and that we can go back in time on these issues is scary.”

The project is out to financiers, and the goal is to start production in the first quarter of 2018.

The Firm recently sold domestic rights to Jennifer Garner-starrer The Tribes of Palos Verdes to IFC and is currently in postproduction on the race drama Burden, starring Garrett Hedlund and Forest Whitaker. The latter tells the true story of a man hunted by the Ku Klux Klan after leaving the group only to be taken in and protected by a black congregation in rural South Carolina.

Curtis’ My Week With Marilyn (2011) was nominated for two Academy Awards, while his more recent feature, The Woman in Gold, was the highest-grossing independent feature in 2015. 

Moss won two Emmys on Sunday night for The Handmaid’s Tale, one for acting and the other for producing the series, which deals with totalitarianism and the subjugation of women’s rights. She next stars in the new season of the Jane Campion limited series Top of the Lake: China Girl, and will be seen this fall in Ruben Ostlund’s Palme d’Or-winning film The Square. 

Moss is repped by WME, Ribisi Entertainment and Independent Talent Group in the U.K. Schore and Sethi are with ICM and Madhouse Entertainment. Curtis is repped by UTA, Anonymous Content and Independent Talent Group in the U.K.