Los Angeles:
Guillermo del Toro's upcoming directorial "Nightmare Alley" has added "Hereditary" star Toni Collette to its cast. Collette joins Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in the film, which is del Toro's follow-up project to his Oscar-winning film "The Shape of Water". The new movie is based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham. del Toro will direct it from a script he has co-written with Kim Morgan.
The story follows Stanton Carlisle (Cooper), an ambitious young con-man who teams up with a female psychiatrist (Blanchett) who is even more corrupt than he is. At first, they enjoy success fleecing people with their mentalist act, but then she turns the tables on him, out-manipulating the manipulator.
Collette will portray a mentalist named Zeena who mentors Carlisle, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Meanwhile, Richard Jenkins and Michael Shannon, who featured in "The Shape of Water", are in negotiations to board the cast.
Gresham's novel was previously adapted into a 1947 movie, directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Tyrone Power and Coleen Gray in the lead.
del Toro will also produce the project with J Miles Davis. The movie will be distributed by Fox Searchlight.
Collette is currently awaiting the release of Rian Johnson's "Knives Out", in which she features alongside a star-studded cast of Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Lakeith Stanfield and Katherine Langford.
The film hits the theatres in November this year.
