Lily-Rose Depp Leads Searchlight’s ‘Playmates’ Drama

Lily-Rose Depp has signed on to star in “Playmates,” a new coming-of-age drama acquired by Searchlight Pictures. The project will mark the feature directing debut of Lorraine Nicholson, who also wrote the screenplay and drew loosely on her childhood visits to the Playboy Mansion.

Depp will play Anna, one of seven women competing to become Playmate of the Month. Indiana Elle is set as Elle, a 13-year-old who considers the mansion a second home. The story brings the two characters together in an unexpected friendship as each pursues a different goal: Anna wants a magazine cover, while Elle is focused on a boy.

A cast built around two generations

Bill Pullman will portray Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. The combination gives the film an established lead in Depp, an experienced character actor in Pullman and a young performer on the rise in Elle, who recently appeared in “The Housemaid.” No production start or release date was announced with the acquisition.

The film’s personal angle comes from Nicholson. She is the daughter of Jack Nicholson and Rebecca Broussard and has written about spending time at the mansion during the 1990s. Rather than positioning the project as a conventional biography of Hefner, the announced premise centers on the relationship between a child moving through that environment and a young woman trying to secure a place within it.

Lorraine Nicholson steps behind the camera

Nicholson previously wrote and directed the short film “Life Boat,” which premiered at the Tribeca Festival. “Playmates” expands that work into her first feature, with Alex Orlovsky and Duncan Montgomery producing for High Frequency Entertainment. Depp is also a producer. Searchlight executives Richard Ruiz and Cornelia Burleigh are overseeing the project.

For Depp, the movie adds another filmmaker-driven role to a slate that has included Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu.” She is also set to reunite with Eggers on “Werwulf” and appears in the Zellner brothers’ science-fiction comedy “Alpha Gang.”

Searchlight’s acquisition establishes a studio home and the principal cast, but several practical details remain open. A filming timetable, additional cast members and a planned theatrical window have not yet been disclosed.