Elle Fanning is moving from her Golden Globe-nominated performance in Hulu’s The Great to a film project around one of the most loved movies ever.
The 22-year-old actress has signed on to play Oscar-nominated actress Ali McGraw in Francis and the Godfather, about the creation of 1972 classic The Godfather.
Barry Levinson is directing the movie, which relates the behind-the-scenes drama on director Francis Ford Coppola’s transformation of Mario Puzo’s novel, which is broadly viewed as one of the best film of all time.
While McGraw didn’t star in The Godfather, at the time she was married to Robert Evans, who was Paramount’s head of production during The Godfather’s shooting.
She joins an A-list cast including Oscar Isaac as Francis Ford Coppola, Jake Gyllenhaal as Evans and Elisabeth Moss as the director’s wife Eleanor Coppola.
Filming is relied upon to occur this fall, however no distributor is set up as of now.
‘Elle is one of the most exciting and versatile actresses out there,’ director Levinson said in a statement.
‘I am beyond thrilled that she has joined the terrific cast of ‘Francis & The Godfather’ and will bring her unique talent to the film,’ he added.
Levinson is coordinating from a script by Andrew Farotte, which the director re-developed after it made the Black List as one of the favorite unproduced scripts back in 2015.
Mike Marcus, Doug Mankoff and Andrew Spaulding are creating for Echo Lake Entertainment, alongside Kevin Turen, Jon Levin and Baltimore Pictures’ Jason Sosnoff.
The project is really one of two that are delving behind-the-scenes of The Godfather, with the other being the Paramount Plus series The Offer.
That project, in light of producer Albert S. Rosy’s experiences making the film, made headlines when Armie Hammer exited the venture, where he was playing Ruddy, after claims emerged.
McGraw was married to Evans, who might proceed to turbecome a legendary producer of movies like Chinatown and Urban Cowboy, from 1969 to 1972.
She met Steve McQueen on the set of their film The Getaway, and were married in 1973, until they split in 1978.
Fanning will next be seen on the big screen close by her real-life sister Dakota Fanning in The Nightingale, playing a couple of sisters isolated by World War II, scheduled to hit theaters on December 23.