We were just talking about how Guillermo del Toro was knocking it out of the park with his first two stars that are reportedly involved with his upcoming film, “Nightmare Alley.” But now, it appears that even more incredible talents are also being looked at for potential roles in the follow-up to the filmmaker’s Oscar-winning “The Shape of Water.”
According to Collider, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, and Mark Povinelli are all being looked at by del Toro as people he wants to co-star in his period film “Nightmare Alley.”
The film is said to be based on the novel of the same name by author William Lindsay Gresham and the report says the film “follows roustabout Stanton ‘Stan’ Carlisle, who joins a traveling carnival and unsuccessfully schemes to figure out the mind-reading act of Mademoiselle Zeena and her alcoholic husband, Pete. But when Pete dies, Zeena is forced to take on Stan as a partner, and he quickly proves more gifted than his predecessor. Ambitious to a fault, it’s not long before Stan goes out on his own — to mixed results.”
Collette is being looked at to play Zeena, while Cooper will portray Stan. Dafoe is lined up to play Pete, but the report says that the actor’s role could be changed from husband to father in the film version. Mara would portray Molly, the potential love interest for Stan. And Perlman would play Bruno, the carnival’s strongman.
“Nightmare Alley” is co-written by del Toro, along with Kim Morgan. There’s no release date set for the film, but it’s reportedly set to begin filming at the beginning of 2020.
