“Jack about to get mothered”. Charli XCX embraces the title of mother the gay community has bestowed on her as she prepares to partner up with legendary producer Jack Antonoff for the new A24’s pop music biopic Mother Mary. It was announced on the 21st March that the dreamy duo will be creating original tracks for the film.
So far all we know about the plot is that it will follow a fictional musician, played by Anne Hathaway, showing her relationship with a famous fashion designer, played by Michaela Coel.
The pop melodrama will be directed by David Lowery best known for his raved-about A24 supernatural drama A Ghost Story (2017). This will be his third A24 film having also directed the fantasy epic The Green Knight(2021). Lowery recently directed the new live-action Disney adaptation of Peter Pan, Peter Pan & Wendy(2023), which is set to premiere on Disney + on the 28th April.
Eight-time Grammy winner Jack Antonoff has been shaping pop as we know it for years working alongside Taylor Swift the 1975, Lorde, St. Vincent, Florence and the Machine, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Clairo to produce the albums synonymous with this decade and the 2010s. Recently he co-produced Lana Del Rey’s experimental Americana fusion record Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd released earlier this month. Charli and Jack have been buddy buddy for years and a return to collaborating felt eminent following both pair’s past successes. Back in 2015, Charli and Jack joined forces co-headlining the Charli and Jack Do Tour around America.
This is not the first time Charli’s has made a welcome appearance in an A24 film with her track ‘Hot Girls’ featuring in the satirical thriller Bodies Bodies Bodies last year. Antonoff meanwhile fashioned the 70s-style soundtrack for the hit kid’s film Minions: The Rise of Gru featuring Diana Ross, Tame Impala, St Vincent, and Kali Uchis.
To celebrate the announcement Charli shared a throwback photo of herself and Jack commenting “hate myself for this pic but it had to be done”. She also called out Pitchfork for the photo they posted of her when they announced the news sarcastically writing in the comment section, “Crushed the photo choice love you”. (She’s a blessing to our feed).
The Madonna of hyper pop herself has been teasing her return to the studio for the last month. She wittily captioned one Instagram post: “crash made me have a fair few breakdowns but next one gonna be worse. i feel it”. Charli will be performing at Coachella next month the one-of-a-kind festival held in the Colorado Desert.
Mother Mary is set to be filmed in Germany later this year. As of now, the film has yet to receive a release date.
Words by: Molly Sutherland
Header Image: Charli XCX