The cast is filling out for Guillermo del Toro‘s adaptation of Nightmare Alley. The latest to join the cast is the brilliant actor and Oscar nominee Willem Defoe who will play the head barker at a traveling carnival, Variety reports. Defoe joins Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, and Rooney Mara.
Set in a world of carnival hustlers and con men, the film tells the story of a mentalist (Cooper) who teams with a psychologist in order to swindle the rich. Things go south for the man when he’s out-hustled by a woman.
The film is the second adaptation of William Lindsey Gresham’s novel of the same name. The first movie was made in 1947 and starred Tyrone Power.
Defoe has been in a long line of fantastic films including The Lighthouse, Aquaman, Death Note, John Wick, The Boondock Saints, and more than 130 films and shows.
Del Toro, who co-wrote Nightmare Alley with Kim Morgan, will direct the thriller for Fox Searchlight with production beginning in 2020.
