Jennifer Lopez is ready to return to the silver screen -- as a cougar.


The actress and singer is set to star in the upcoming thriller “The Boy Next Door” as a newly separated mother who strikes up a romance with a teenage boy, Variety reports.


The micro-budget movie will be produced by Jason Blum (“The Purge,” “Paranormal Activity”) and is based on a script by Barbara Curry. Rob Cohen (“xXx”) is currently in talks to direct the film.


According to the entertainment magazine, Lopez’s character begins an affair with one of her son’s close friends, but runs into trouble after she attempts to end the relationship.


In the past, the 44-year-old mogul and superstar has been the target of criticism for her own real life relationship with her 26-year-old beau Casper Smart, whom she has dated since October 2011.


Lopez recently spoke with Cosmo about Smart and assured the magazine that their relationship was strong despite the 18-year age difference.


"For me, it's about having a great partner to walk this life with," Lopez told Cosmopolitan for the magazine's October 2013 issue. "I have my own high standards for what I want in a partner and how I want to be treated. I bring a lot to the table. I'm not talking about material things but what I have to offer as a person – love and loyalty and all the things that make a good relationship.”



“The Boy Next Door” is set to begin shooting this fall, before Lopez returns as a celebrity judge on Season 13 of Fox’s singing-competition “American Idol” in January.



Earlier on HuffPost:




Loading Slideshow...



  • Christina Aguilera


    "<a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/4583113/christina-aguilera-on-family-fame-and-x-factor.html" target="_hplink">I'm always in support of someone who is willing and comfortable</a> in their own skin enough to embrace it. Embracing your body is so important, especially as a woman. In this business we are so analysed and judged," said the singer to The Sun.




  • America Ferrera


    The actress recently told Cosmopolitan for Latinas she would like to inspire young women to focus more on their accomplishments and less on their appearance. "<a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-body/news/america-ferrara-cosmo-latina-2012310#ixzz2QGdBvLMK " target="_hplink">How much time have I wasted on diets and what I look like? </a>Take your time and your talent and figure out what you have to contribute to this world," Ferrera said to Cosmpolitan for Latinas, "and get over what the hell your butt looks like in those jeans!"




  • Sara Ramirez


    <a href="http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/2006/12/sara-ramirez?currentPage=1" target="_hplink">"I'm a size 12 in a size 0 town", the actress</a> told Glamour. Today, Sara accepted her body as it is, but also revealed to the publication that getting there was not easy. "I grew up wanting to look like someone else rather than appreciating the body I had."




  • Judy Reyes


    "For years I exercised to be thinner, and I never got the results I wanted," said the actress to Shape, assuring she is no longer obsessed with the scale and preferred to exercise to feel healthier. "Now I determine my weight by how my clothes feel."




  • Mariah Carey


    Another star who has received criticism for her weight over the years is Mariah. "<a href="http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2006/02/07/mariah_carey_talks_about_her_weight" target="_hplink">I'm really bad with the weight thing.</a> I go up and down really quickly because I am a muscular person. People don't realize." Carey accepts she is now a "little thicker" than what she has been in the past, but assures that she doesn't want to be a "skinny twig."




  • Sofia Vergara


    "<a href="http://www.esquire.com/women/women-we-love/sofia-vergara-0412?link=rel&dom=msn_ent&src=syn&con=slide&mag=esq" target="_blank">In Colombia everybody's very voluptuous</a> and you're supposed to be. You don't want to be skinny when all of your cousins are mermaids. You grow up thinking that's how beauty is," said Sofia Vergara in an interview with Esquire about the Latino meaning to real beauty.




  • Jennifer Lopez


    <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20033765,00.html" target="_blank">"I couldn't ever be a size zero,"</a>JLo reportedly said in an interview with Elle magazine. "I just don't see how I could get down to that size and still be healthy." "It wouldn't work. I have a butt, I have boobs and I have a woman's curves; there is no way I'd see them go to zero."




  • Salma Hayek


    “<a href="http://www.celebritybabyscoop.com/2012/09/24/salma-hayek-on-motherhood-body-image" target="_blank">I’m not a skinny girl. </a>I push it. I’m at the limit of chubbiness at all times, but I’m happy at all times,” said Salma Hayek to More magazine on not worrying about her waistline.




  • Rosario Dawson


    <a href="http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/26/actress-sounds-off-on-body-image-extremes/?hpt=he_c2" target="_blank">"I remember everyone asking when I was doing press</a> for the movie [Rent], 'What did you do to look so thin? You looked great' and I'm like, 'I looked emaciated'... It's a form of violence, in the way that we look at women and how we expect them to look and be," said Rosario Dawson in an interview with Shape magazine. [<a href="http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/26/actress-sounds-off-on-body-image-extremes/?hpt=he_c2" target="_blank">via CNN</a>]




  • Eva Mendes


    <a href="http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/celebrity/384575/eva-mendes-i-love-my-curves-and-i-embrace-them.html#3GDK47rqBjLFRl5G.99" target="_blank">"I love my curves and I embrace them,"</a> said Eva Mendes recently in an interview with Marie Claire.