New Regency has won an auction for Rub & Tug, an American Hustle-like true story in which Rupert Sanders will direct Scarlett Johansson in the fact-based story of a woman who flourished in a male-dominated business of massage parlors and prostitution by essentially taking on the physical identity of a man. New Regency prevailed in a worldwide rights deal over five other bidders. Sources said the hope is to start production in February at a budget north of $30 million.
Jean Marie Gill was a larger than life character who took on the mob and became the crime kingpin of 1970s Pittsburgh through her empire of illicit massage parlors and an anabolic steroids ring that helped fuel the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL dynasty, all the while cross-dressing and leaning on her allies in the gay community to help grow her empower. However, it is Jeans fiery romance with her girlfriend Cynthia that truly defines her and forms the emotional core of the story.
The complex anti-hero offers Johansson perhaps her most challenging role since Lost in Translation.
Gary Spinelli wrote the script and the film will be produced by Joel Silver, Tobey Maguire, Scarlett Johansson, Matthew Plouffe, Gary Spinelli, Jonathan Lia.
Gill ran a string of businesses, including the Spartacus Massage Parlor in McKees Rocks, the Japanese Meditation Temple and the Taurean Models massage parlor. A former blacksmith with a long rap sheet of providing prostitutes, she was a colorful figure: known to spout Irish poetry and when law enforcement raided Spartacus in 1978, Gill reportedly threw a birthday cake at an undercover state trooper. Her notoriety prompted The Pittsburgh Press to award gill the Dubious man of the Year and Dubious woman Of The Year titles, explaining: She embodies business savvy, sexual confusion and an eye for fashion like no one since Michael Jackson.
Her brazen defiance of the mob left the question who would end her first: criminal enterprises or law enforcement. One of her employees at the Gemini was killed after she opened a letter bomb that destroyed the massage parlor. Another of her massage parlors was burnt to the ground in a suspicious fire. But it was law enforcement that brought her to heel in 1984 on income tax fraud.She was sentenced to a 13-year prison stretch, but got three years taken off when she agreed to close three massage parlors within 24 hours. She was released in 1987 and died at age 72.
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