One of the great things about Jessica Chastain is how easily she bounces from serious dramas like A Most Violent Year and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby to more crowd-pleasing films like Crimson Peak and The Martian. That makes following her career both unpredictable and exciting, and her next role sounds like one that we should be taking very seriously as she'll be playing a real-life activist who helped defend Native American tribes.
Chastain will star in Woman Walking Ahead, playing 19th-century activist and artist Caroline Weldon. Born in Switzerland, Weldon traveled to the United States as a child and eventually became interested in the plight of Native Americans. She would leave her Brooklyn home to live with Sitting Bull and the Sioux tribe, becoming his confidante and personal secretary. She would write letters to the U.S. government on behalf of the tribe, even though it earned her scorn in the press.
Directing the film is Susanna White (Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang) from a script by Steven Knight (Locke), but there's no word on when filming could begin or who might take on the role of Sitting Bull. [Deadline]
