Thriller Nightmare Alley
Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett & Rooney Mara +
It has sleazy showbiz characters, grifters, hustlers, and femme fatales. Director Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming film Nightmare Alley is a thriller that promises twisty, dark, genre-bending horror.
Based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham, the book was adapted into a 1947 film starring Tyrone Power (the 1930s matinee idol known for swashbuckling performances in The Mark of Zorro and The Black Swan).
The book is filled with unsavory characters, and Gresham wrote much of it in Manhattan’s Hotel Carter. In 1962, Gresham returned to the hotel following a terminal cancer diagnosis. Unfortunately, he took his own life with an overdose and left no note except a business card in his pocket reading, “No Address. No Phone. No Business. No Money. Retired.”
Anyway, del Toro has co-written a new version of the story with screenwriter Kim Morgan, and he has assembled a star-studded cast for this tale of seedy characters, including:
Bradley Cooper
Who he’s playing: the “ambitious carnival barker” Stanton “Stan” Carlisle
What you know him from: A Star is Born, Silver Linings Playbook, The Hangover, and the voice of Rocket in The Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers blockbusters.
Cate Blanchett
Who she’s playing: psychiatrist Dr. Lilith Ritter
What you know her from: the Australian actress is a living legend who has portrayed Elizabeth I, Carol Aird, “Blue” Jasmine, and Galadriel.
Rooney Mara
Who she’s playing: Molly Cahill
What you know her from: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and the girl who gets with Cate Blanchett in Carol.
Ron Perlman
Who he’s playing: Bruno
What you know him from: a repeat member of del Toro’s unofficial actors’ collective, he was Hellboy, and a screen presence in Pacific Rim, Cronos, and even Blade II.
Willem Defoe
Who he’s playing: Clem Hoately
What you know him from: his menacingly (yet darkly seductive) toothy grin.
Toni Collete
Who she’s playing: Carnival mentalist Zeena Krumbein
What you know her from: her tour de force in Hereditary
PROVOKR provides a portfolio of beautifully shot images from the film and the trailer:
