From the 1990 Sean Penn movie State of Grace to the bygone NBC drama The Black Donnellys (which introduced the entertainment world to a young Olivia Wilde), the Irish gangs of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen have provided plenty of entertainment material. But a forthcoming, star-studded movie will put a new focus on this rough terrain – the wives of Irish-American bad boys.
Based on the gritty D.C. / Vertigo comic book of the same title, The Kitchen is slated to star Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men, Handmaid’s Tale), Irish American Melissa McCarthy, as well as up-and-coming comic actress Tiffany Haddish. In addition, Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson is expected to join The Kitchen cast. Gleeson would likely play Gabriel O’Malley, a Vietnam veteran who works as a hitman for the neighborhood gangsters, the most famous of whom were the notorious Westies.
As The Hollywood Reporter noted: “Straight Outta Compton” co-writer Andrea Berloff is making her directorial debut on the film, which is set in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, in the 1970s and follows the wives of Irish mobsters who end up taking over the criminal enterprise after their husbands are arrested and jailed. The women turn out to be more vicious than the men.”
Until The Kitchen hits screens, look for Melissa McCarthy in the controversial August movie The Happytime Murders, which blends R-rated humor with characters who bear more than a striking resemblance to cuddly Muppets. (In fact, the current producers of Sesame Street took the Happyland creators to court for trademark infringement, only to end up losing.)
Before The Kitchen hits screens, also look for Domhnall Gleeson in the August supernatural thriller, The Little Stranger, to be directed by Irishman Lenny Abrahamson. ♦
Irish Eye on Hollywood: Irish Women CanStand the Heat
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