Catherine Zeta-Jones could certainly do with a hit movie. She’s been rather hit by the curse of winning an actress Oscar, where picking up the gong sees what should be a big career boost turn into the high spot before a steep slide into mediocrity (if you don’t believe me, just look at a list of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress winners and see how most saw their career diminish almost from the moment they won).

Zeta-Jones hasn’t had a success since Ocean’s Twelve, and while she’s got Lay the Favorite, Playing The Field and Rock Of Ages coming up next year, she’ll be hoping the new movie she’s just signed up for, Broken City, will be a hit.

The film is about a Brooklyn private detective (Mark Wahlberg), who is hired by the New York City mayor (Russell Crowe) to discover the identity of his wife’s lover. When the lover turns up dead, the detective digs deeper into the case and uncovers a vast conspiracy involving the mayor. According to Deadline, Zeta-Jones will portray the mayor’s wife.

Allen Hughes will Broken City from a screenplay by Brian Tucker (it’s taken a while for it to get this far though, as the script made the Black List back in 2008). Production is slated to begin in November on a $50 million budget.

General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser