John Malkovich, Scott Glenn and Dylan Walsh have joined the cast of Secretariat, Disney's horseracing movie about a Triple Crown-winning thoroughbred and his owner Penny Chenery (Diane Lane).
Based on the true-story of the chestnut colt dubbed 'Big Red', Secretariat is a nags-to-riches tale that follows Chenery's journey from callow newcomer to first lady of racing. That came in 1973, when Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes, Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in the same race season to become the first Triple Crown winner for 25 years. Click here for the full low-down.
Malkovich will play Secretariat's charismatic trainer, a man whose self-assurance initially blinds him to the horse's potential. Walsh and Glenn, meanwhile, respectively star as Chenery's chauvinistic lawyer husband and the horse's former owner, a Southern aristocrat who loses him on the toss of a coin ("D'oh!"). Presumably neither will smooth her path to race glory.
**Secretariat **director Randall Wallace (When We Were Soldiers) is off and running with principal photography this week in Louisiana and Kentucky.