Allison Janney will star in 'Bad Education' with Hugh Jackman.

Allison Janney

Allison Janney

The Oscar-winning actress has signed on for the independent movie, which is currently in pre-production and will be directed by 'Thoroughbreds' filmmaker Cory Finley.

Mike Makowsky has written the script for the movie, which is largely based on his own high school experiences but plot details have been kept secret, Variety reports.

Producers include Makowsky along with Fred Berger and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones of Automatik and Eddie Vaisman, Julia Lebedev, and Oren Moverman from Sight Unseen.

Meanwhile, following her awards success in 'I, Tonya', in which she played Tonya Harding's cold-hearted mother LaVona Golden, Janney, 58, went straight back to work on hit TV show 'Mom'.

Speaking on Oscars night she said: "I'm happy to have a job after something like this because it can go to your head.... I'm going to have a big crash-down after this so I'm happy to have the folks of 'Mom' to lift me up."

The former 'West Wing' actress admitted she had "given up" on the idea of ever winning an Oscar.

She said: "I kind of didn't dare to have dreams like this, because I didn't want to be disappointed.

"At a certain point I had given up thinking this could happen to me. I just wasn't being given the right kind of roles in films."