Cate Blanchett to Join Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley”

Cate Blanchett. Photo by David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock (9669063el)

With the production of Guillermo del Toro‘s Nightmare Alley eyeing a shooting start at the beginning of 2020, the project is looking to round out its cast. 

Multiple outlets report Cate Blanchett is in negotiations to join the Oscar-winning director’s adaptation of the 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham. This is the second time the novel will be adapted for the big screen, having been made into a feature film in 1947.

Del Toro also co-wrote the script with Kim Morgan. Del Toro is producing and financing the film alongside J. Miles Dale and TSG Entertainment. 

Per Variety, Nightmare Alley follows a con-man who teams up with a female psychiatrist who is even more corrupt than he is. At first, they enjoy success with their mentalist act, but then she turns the tables on him.

Nightmare Alley is Del Toro’s follow-up to The Shape of Water, which won Best Picture.