One of the earlier Sony hack leaks dropped the news that Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams were both paid less than their male American Hustle co-stars. Amy’s role in the movie was large, and much of the film’s promotional material revolved around JLaw. Yet Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, and Jeremy Renner all received larger backend deals. At the time, Bale was the only male with a proven box-office record. Cooper has since proven he can draw audiences with American Sniper, but Renner has never pulled off a financially successful movie on his own. He’s always an ensemble player (and a douchey one too). Why would even Renner make more than the ladies?

We know the answer to that question. Hollywood (and society) often hands men higher paychecks for doing the same job as their women counterparts. JLaw has had enough, and she’s pulling a Charlize Theron. Hollywood Reporter reports that Jennifer agreed to star in a space drama/romance, Passengers, when Amy Pascal was in charge at Sony. The deal is still awaiting the final greenlight, and it sounds like this HR piece is an orchestrated push. The film would hand $20 million to JLaw and $10 milion to her co-star, Chris Pratt. Sony is starting to hesitate on Jennifer’s salary because this movie isn’t part of a franchise, but JLaw’s team put their foot down. She’ll get that salary, or she’ll walk:

If a person were to try to design a movie project that could simultaneously attract and repel a fiscally prudent studio executive like Sony Pictures’ new film chief Tom Rothman, it might be the space drama Passengers.

Rothman found Passengers awaiting his green light when he replaced Amy Pascal in the top job at the studio in late February. And while the project has obvious attractions — with red-hot Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt set to star in the interstellar love story and Morten Tyldum, who scored an Oscar nomination for directing The Imitation Game, on board — it hardly is an obvious yes: talent getting top dollar for an original idea with special effects that Rothman is said to see as a marketing challenge and that doesn’t appear to have franchise potential. Not necessarily an easy call for an executive expected to bring restraint to a studio that, under Pascal, long was known for its generosity to talent.

Before Rothman, 60, officially took over, Sony already had agreed to pay Lawrence $20 million to star, though her role actually is somewhat secondary to Pratt’s. His deal gives him about $10 million with the possibility (likelihood) of more based on the performance of Universal’s Jurassic World reboot. With its two huge stars, Passengers is important to Sony “because it has a hook; it’s marketable internationally,” argues one source close to the project, and the studio doesn’t have a lot of branded intellectual property in its cupboard.

Lawrence, 24, and her CAA reps are said to have held firm to the $20 million fee. Sources say Lawrence was prepared to walk away from Passengers if she didn’t get to $20 million on this film, and Tyldum was ready to exit with her. [Amy] Pascal herself might have fanned the flames with her February interview in which she was asked about the Lawrence pay gap. “The truth is that what women have to do is not work for less money,” Pascal said. “They have to walk away. People shouldn’t be so grateful for jobs.”

[From Hollywood Reporter]

Sony needs to get it together on this film. Space movies are usually big moneymakers, and the final budget would be $80 million. Jennifer has an Oscar and a built-in audience who follows her to nearly any film (except Serena, ha), and Pratt is getting there too. HuffPo notes that “the Sony hack proved to be a blessing in disguise for Lawrence.” We’ll see. I hope Sony makes good on this deal. JLaw would join the likes of Angelina Jolie, RDJ, Denzel Washington, and Matt Damon in the salary department. Make it so!

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN