Lorraine Nicholson had a unique upbringing that included frequent childhood visits to the Playboy Mansion during one of Playboy’s peak eras.
Now Nicholson, who is the daughter of screen icon Jack Nicholson, is tapping into that mansion past to make her feature directorial debut with Playmates, a coming-of-age drama acquired by Searchlight Pictures.
Lily-Rose Depp, the daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, will star in the project along with rising actress Indiana Elle, who made her feature debut as Amanda Seyfried’s daughter in The Housemaid. Bill Pullman, who is no stranger to Hollywood dynasties as the father of actor Lewis Pullman, is on board to play Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
Per Searchlight, the Nicholson-penned script centers on Elle, a 13-year-old know-it-all who considers the Playboy Mansion her second home, and who meets Anna, one of seven hopefuls vying to be Playmate of the Month. The two form an unlikely friendship as each tries to help get what the other wants most, a magazine cover and a boy.
Depp will play the Playmate hopeful, while Elle is the young girl.
Alex Orlovsky and Duncan Montgomery of High Frequency Entertainment will produce, along with Depp.
Nicholson, whose mother was model Rebecca Broussard, wrote an essay for Vanity Fair in 2024 detailing many of her 1990s mansion memories, including having Easter egg hunts, driving child-size cars on the tennis courts, being bitten by a peacock and exploring the infamous grotto cave. To her, it was magical … until she slowly began to grow up and realize that she was different from the women, the men, and the other boys that hung at the house and its grounds.
“I never went to summer camp,” she wrote. “I never had an after-school activity. From the year I was born, 1990, until I was about 11, I went to the Playboy Mansion, because that’s where my friends were. There were the kids — like curly-haired Taylor, whose parents actually met at the Midsummer Night’s Dream party. There were the girls — more Playmates past, present and future — and of course, the men. Only half my friends there were actually children, but that didn’t matter. The adults who hung out at the Mansion, like Alison and Joel, liked to play too.”
Bill Pullman; Indiana Elle
Benjamin Cremel/Getty Images; Elizabeth Lippman
Nicholson, who appeared in the 2011 drama Soul Surfer, is a graduate of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women, and wrote and directed the short film Life Boat, starring Stephen Dorff, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Producers Orlovsky and Montgomery have been working in the indie feature space for over 20 years. Among their recent credits are Derek Cianfrance’s true-life drama Roofman, Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl and Spirit Award-winning Lurker.
Depp most recently starred in Robert Eggers’ surprise hit Nosferatu for Focus Features and reunites with the team on Eggers’ Werwulf, which opens Christmas Day. Depp will also be seen in the Zellner brothers’ sci-fi comedy Alpha Gang, which made its recent debut at Telluride and TIFF.
Pullman recently appeared on the Duffer brothers’ show The Boroughs, as well as Paul Schrader’s The Basics of Philosophy, which premiered at the 2026 Venice Film Festival. He hits the screens next year with Spaceballs: The New One.
After her appearance in Housemaid, Elle played the daughter of Elisabeth Moss in Apple TV’s 2026 series Imperfect Woman and had a supporting role in the Ben Stiller-produced comedy The Dink. One of her earliest gigs was playing a young Taylor Swift in the singer’s video “Willow.”
Nicholson is repped by CAA, Adam Paulsen and Hansen Jacobson, while Depp is repped by CAA, Markham Froggatt, Agence Adequat and Lichter Grossman.
Pullman is repped by CAA, and Elle by Leigh Keene at Sovereign Talent Group and Hansen Jacobson.
VP of production Richard Ruiz and creative executive Cornelia Burleigh will oversee the project for Searchlight, reporting to heads of production and development DanTram Nguyen and Katie Goodson-Thomas.