Jennifer Lawrence to star in adaptation of ‘Rules of Inheritance’

Academy Award winner -- and “Girl on Fire” -- Jennifer Lawrence will star in and produce “The Rules of Inheritance,” Deadline Hollywood confirms.

The film is an adaptation of Claire Bidwell’s Smith 2012 memoir of the same title, about her parents’ diagnosis of cancer when she was just 14. The memoir recounts Smith’s coming-of-age and struggle with grief as she loses both parents within seven years and throws herself into romance, travel and other adventures.

“Um, I can’t believe this is happening,” Smith, who will be played by Lawrence in the film, tweeted on Wednesday. “It’s so surreal that I can’t think straight.”

According to Smith’s blog, the project had been more than a year in the making, with Lawrence coming on-board in February.

“I am incredibly grateful and humbled by all of this,” Smith wrote. “All I ever wanted when I wrote ‘The Rules of Inheritance’ was the chance to help a person or two, to make someone out there feel a little less alone in their grief process. And now all of this....”

“We all believe this film can strike a deeply resonant chord with audiences, just as Claire’s riveting memoir has,” said Lawrence’s co-producer Bruce Cohen, who also worked on “Silver Linings Playbook.”

The film will be directed by Susanne Bier, who directed Lawrence in “Serena” and who is also an Oscar winner, for the Danish film “In a Better World.” Abi Morgan, who wrote “The Iron Lady” and “Shame,” will write the screenplay.

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