Willem Dafoe has closed a deal to join Guillermo del Toro’s next directorial effort, the thriller Nightmare Alley at Fox Searchlight and TSG Entertainment per a report by Variety.
Based on the William Lindsay Gresham novel of the same name, the story follows an ambitious young con-man who teams up with a female psychiatrist 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. Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara co-star.
Dafoe plays the head barker at a travelling carnival who gives Cooper’s character a job, ushering him into a world of show biz and grifting.
Del Toro co-wrote the script with Kim Morgan and filming begins early 2020.
