After his Oscar success with The Shape Of Water, Guillermo del Toro decided to take some time off from directing to focus on pushing other projects to the screen as a producer. Now he's preparing to sit back down in the big chair, wrangling Bradley Cooper to star in Nightmare Alley. And, according to Variety, he has Cate Blanchett in talks to co-star.
Originally adapted by Fox from William Lindsay Gresham's novel in 1947, Nightmare Alley 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.
Del Toro and co-writer Kim Morgan are reportedly hewing closer to the original book than that first film. And if Colliderreporter Jeff Schneider's sources are correct, Blanchett is just the tip of the casting iceberg, asToni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Willem Dafoe, Mark Povinelli, Rooney Mara and del Toro's old pal Ron Perlman are all in various stages of making deals to appear. Collider has also heard that Water's Michael Shannon is also under consideration for a small role, but that his schedule could be a problem.
With Fox Searchlight backing the film, del Toro is aiming to start shooting early next year, and the thought of a new movie from the director certainly fills us with joy. His latest producing/co-writing gig, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, creeps in on 23 August.