Guillermo del Toro hasn’t made a movie since 2017’s Oscar-winning “The Shape of Water.” He currently has a live-action “Pinnochio” in-store for Netflix, but before that long-delayed passion project comes to fruition, del Toro is readying a remake of the 1940’s film noir “Nightmare Alley.”
According to Collider, Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, and Mark Povinelli are all being looked at to star in del Toro’s period film.
Del Toro’s filmography these last few years reads like an eclectic, but balanced mash-up of genre cinema: “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Shape of Water,” “Pacific Rim,” “Crimson Peak,” and “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.” It’ll be interesting to see what he does with a full-fledged “film noir,” especially since he’s had a few films tackle shades of noir but never fully.
Synopsis for “Nightmare Alley” [via Collider]
“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.”
“Nightmare Alley” has a screenplay co-written by del Toro and film blogger/writer Kim Morgan.
I briefly mentioned Ben Affleck's "Animals" yesterday, but I need to get more into it, because this thing, now streaming on Netflix, is one of the most baffling efforts I've seen from a serious director in a long time.