In Hustlers , Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu play a pair of savvy New York City strippers who hatch a criminal plot to turn profits after the financial crash. The plan? The movie was written by Lorene Scafaria and inspired by two real-life hustlers profiled by Jessica Pressler in a feature for New York magazine. Her body was Jessica Rabbit curvy, her lips Angelina Jolie puffy; her hair, which concealed tattoos of a cascade of stars running down her neck, was Cleopatra black. Buried within this ultrafeminine package was a mercenary streak worthy of Gordon Gekko. She had a soft spot for designer clothing and a bullish business strategy—preferring to max out credit cards in one fell swoop rather than taking smaller amounts over a longer period of time. Her partner in crime was Roselyn Keo.

Before Jennifer Lopez was offering Constance Wu pointers on how to grip a stripper pole with ease, former real-life strip club employees Samantha Barbash and Roselyn Keo and company were unknowingly committing the misdeeds that would soon become fodder for a Hollywood feature. Seemingly flawless, their cunning scheme targeted married men who worked on Wall Street, as the consequences of filing formal complaints or having the Mrs. In the end, the core quartet—Barbash and Keo, plus exotic entertainers Karina Pascucci and Marsi Rosen—were all arrested and charged. It is based on a article written by Jessica Pressler for New York magazine.

The plot follows a crew of strippers in New York City who begin to steal money by drugging stock traders and CEOs who visit their club, then running up their credit cards. First announced in February , the film was originally set to be financed and distributed by Annapurna Pictures. However, amid financial trouble, Annapurna dropped the rights in October Hustlers had its world premiere on September 7, , at the Toronto International Film Festival , and was theatrically released in the United States on September 13,