On February 12, the official trailer for the upcoming comedy The Hustle was released. Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson lead the new female-centric remake of the 1988 film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, out May 10. Tony winner Alex Sharp (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) plays the male lead, a tech billionaire who becomes the mark for the con-women.
Written by Jac Schaeffer and directed by Chris Addison, the film from MGM follows a British expert con artist (Hathaway) who meets small-time American con artist (Wilson). When Hathaway’s character takes the amateur under her wing and the two embark on a bet to see who can pull off the high-stakes con.
The original film starred Steve Martin, Michael Caine, and Glenne Headley and was made into a Broadway musical starring John Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz, and Sherie Rene Scott. The musical earned a Best Musical Tony nomination and Butz took home the statue for Best Performance By a Leading Actor in a Musical. The musical featured a score by The Band’s Visit Tony winner David Yazbek, who is now working on the score for Broadway’s Tootsie.
The Hustle will not be a musical, though its three stars all have theatrical background. Most notably, Hathaway earned her Oscar for her performance as Fantine in the film adaptation of Les Misérables. She most recently starred in Grounded Off-Broadway at the Public in 2015. Wilson starred as Adelaide in the West End production of Guys and Dolls in 2016; she will also play Jennyanydots in the upcoming film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats. Sharp made his Broadway debut in Curious Incident, for which he won the Tony.