Jennifer Lawrence to direct chemical warfare film

Jennifer Lawrence: 'I have wanted to direct as long as I've wanted to act'

Actress Jennifer Lawrence is to move behind the camera to direct her first film, about US military experiments in mind-altering chemical weapons.

Lawrence told Entertainment Weekly she had signed up to direct the movie, titled Project Delirium.

It is based on a 2012 New Yorker story about the controversial Army research.

Lawrence said: "It's based on this article about mental warfare in the '60s, like an acid experiment gone terribly wrong."

The star won an Oscar in 2013 for starring in Silver Linings Playbook, and has been nominated two further times, for American Hustle and Winter's Bone.

She can currently be seen in the final instalment of The Hunger Games series, Mockingjay Part Two.

'I feel ready'

"I have wanted to direct as long as I've wanted to act," she said. "I just don't talk about it because I'd rather just do it."

She added: "I've wanted to direct since I was 16 and always thought I should start making steps towards that. If I had tried to do it earlier, I wouldn't have been ready. Now I actually feel ready."

Project Delirium is expected to tell the story of research carried out by Colonel James S Ketchum, who tested psychoactive chemicals on around 2,500 soldiers in the belief that such agents could be used to incapacitate enemies.

However, many of the volunteers have since claimed the experiences led to a range of mental and physical health problems.

In 2013, a Californian judge ruled that those who took part were entitled to more information about the chemicals they were exposed to, but not entitled to additional government-funded medical care, the New Scientist reported at the time.