Naomi Watts will play daughter of Annette Bening in "Mother and Child"

Rodrigo Garcia to writer, direct drama
By PATRICK FRATER, Variety


Annette Bening and Naomi Watts will headline "Mother and Child," a multilayered drama from scripter and helmer Rodrigo Garcia.

Through overlapping stories, script follows a woman who gave up her daughter 35 years ago and an African-American woman who is looking to adopt. Kerry Washington and Shareeka Epps also star.

Previously set up through Cha Cha Cha with Focus Films and Universal and a tentative cast that had included Robin Wright Penn and Brittany Robertson, pic is now produced by Julie Lynn through the Mockingbird Films shingle. "Babel" and "21 Grams" helmer Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu is exec producer on the project, which has a production budget of some $7 million.

U.K. sales company WestEnd Films is handling the project in international markets, and tenpercentery Endeavor is repping it in the U.S.

"This is an incredibly emotional tale about the choices we make, missed opportunities and unbreakable blood bonds between mother and daughter," WestEnd exec Eve Schoukroun said.

Pic shoots in L.A. beginning in the first quarter next year.