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“Under the Tuscan Sun” meets “The Godfather” in the latest comedy from multi-hyphenate Toni Collette.

The “Hereditary” star plays an insecure American who inherits her grandfather’s mafia empire in Italy in “Mafia Mamma,” directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Guided by the firm’s trusted consigliere (Monica Bellucci), Collette hilariously defies everyone’s expectations, including her own, as the new head of the family business.

Giulio Corso, Francesco Mastroianni, Alfonso Perugini, Sophia Nomvete, Eduardo Scarpetta, Tim Daish, and Tommy Rodger also star.

Hardwicke directs from a script by Michael J. Feldman and Debbie Jhoon. Lead star Collette produces along with Christopher Simon and Amanda Sthers.

Hardwicke previously told IndieWire’s Kate Erbland that she strives to emphasize “complex female characters” onscreen.

“I think now, as women, we want to see somebody that takes charge of their life and does the very best they can in their power to escape, fight back,...

Hollywood has no institutional memory. One of the reasons that the vast majority of its execs aren’t in therapy, and should be, is because they don’t want to talk about the past even if it’s prologue. They’re purposefully amnesiac. Otherwise, they’d have to confront the lunatic decisions they make over and over again (since repeating the same behavior and expecting different results is one definition of insanity). Which is why I want to revisit Summer 2007 whose $4.18 billion worth of threequels and blockbusters smashed the May 1st through Labor Day domestic box office gross record. It’s not that Hollywood denizens started doing everything right. It’s more like they just started doing less things wrong. The product is still terrible. The process is still tainted.