Elisabeth Moss to play novelist Shirley Jackson

Elisabeth Moss. Image: AFP/Angela Weiss via AFP Relaxnews

The star of “Handmaid’s Tale”, “Mad Men” and “Top of the Lake” has the lead role in a psychological thriller that weaves together fact and fiction.

It’s a story that springboards off real characters, some of them famous, and imagines how they might have been involved in a missing persons case.

Elisabeth Moss is to play the title character in “Shirley”, becoming horror novelist and noted recluse Shirley Jackson.

Directed by Josephine Decker, who has helmed a number of film festival favorites (“Flames”, “Madeline’s Madeline”, “Thou Wast Mild & Lovely”) “Shirley” is based on a novel by Susan Scarf Merrell.

Playing Shirley’s husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, will be Michael Stuhlbarg (“Fargo”, “The Shape of Water”, “Boardwalk Empire”).

Together, they accommodate Hyman’s graduate teaching assistant, Fred, and his wife Rose, who is fascinated by Jackson as well as the rumors that she was involved with a missing persons case involving one of Hyman’s female students.

Needless to say, the living arrangement soon becomes fraught with tension when Shirley accuses Rose of making advances towards Hyman.

Moss is on board not only as star but also as one of the film’s producers. Sarah Gubbins of romantic comedy “I Love Dick” prepared “Shirley” for the screen. JB

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