David Strathairn will have a role in Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Nightmare Alley. Strathairn was nominated for his performance in 2005’s Good Night, and Good Luck. Bradley Cooper is taking the lead role in the noir thriller while Toni Collette, Rooney Mara, and Cate Blanchett also star. The story is set in a “world of carnival hustlers and con men, telling the story of a mentalist (Cooper) who teams with a psychologist in order to swindle the rich.” However, things don’t go as planned.
David Strathairn is all set to play “the alcoholic husband of Toni Collette’s character, a mentalist named Zeena who ends up mentoring Bradley Cooper’s character.” Michael Shannon was also supposed to have a role in Nightmare Alley but it appears he had to back out due to scheduling conflicts. Frequent Guillermo del Toro collaborators Ron Perlman and Richard Jenkins will have roles in the thriller too, which should be good news for fans of the director’s work over the years.
Nightmare Alley is getting close to starting production now that casting is underway. David Strathairn was last seen in this year’s epic Godzilla: King of the Monsters opposite Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, and Ken Watanabe. Strathairn played a prominent role as Dr. Lee Rosen on the Syfy series Alphas from 2011 to 2012 and went on to play Secretary of State William H. Seward in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln alongside Daniel Day Lewis. He won an Emmy and was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in the in 2010’s Temple Grandin.
Related: Bradley Cooper to Replace Leonardo DiCaprio in Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley?
Actors have been excited to get the chance to work with Guillermo del Toro over the years and Nightmare Alley is no different. Toni Collette says, “Guillermo is a true auteur. I look forward to collaborating with him and the amazing cast he has already assembled. What an honor.” The director and writer won two Academy Awards, Best Director and Best Picture, for 2017’s The Shape of Water. In addition to the cast being excited to see what del Toro comes up with next, the director is excited to adapt William Lindsay’s 1946 novel for the big screen. While casting is underway, it is unclear when production will begin for the highly anticipated project.
Guillermo del Toro is directing Nightmare Alley from a script he wrote with Kim Morgan. The project is being produced by del Toro and J. Miles Dale with TSG Entertainment, with Fox Searchlight acquiring worldwide distribution rights. Tyrone Power and Coleen Gray starred in the original 1947 movie adaptation of the source material, which was directed by Edmund Goulding. While the original movie was pretty straight forward and took liberty with the source material, it is believed del Toro will be more faithful to William Lindsay’s book, while making some of his own changes. The Hollywood Reporter was the first to announce that David Strathairn had joined the cast of Nightmare Alley.
