Deadline – Joel Edgerton, Marion Cotillard, Mark Rylance, Sebastian Stan & Vanessa Kirby To Lead Brady Corbet’s Sweeping Immigrant Drama ‘The Brutalist’
EXCLUSIVE: Joel Edgerton (Loving), Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose), Oscar-winner Mark Rylance (Bridge Of Spies), Sebastian Stan (Captain America) and Vanessa Kirby (The Crown) are among the all-star cast set for Brady Corbet’s (Vox Lux) sweeping immigrant drama The Brutalist, we can reveal.
Also among the impressive ensemble will be Isaach De Bankolé (Black Panther), Alessandro Nivola (American Hustle), Raffey Cassidy (The Killing Of A Sacred Deer) and Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac).
Co-written with his partner Mona Fastvold, whose latest movie The World To Come unspools this week at the Venice Film Festival, Corbet’s film will chronicle 30 years in the life of a visionary architect named László Toth (Edgerton) and his wife Erzsébet (Cotillard) who flee post-war Europe to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern America. However, their lives are changed forever by a mysterious and wealthy client (Rylance).
The project, which is due to get underway in January 2021, is described to us as an “epic saga and unconventional love story”. The director has previously said the film’s protagonists are both Holocaust survivors and that it will shoot in English, Yiddish, Hungarian and some Italian.
Protagonist Pictures will debut the package with a virtual presentation to buyers during the Toronto Film Festival. CAA Media Finance is repping U.S. rights and arranging the project’s financing.
Andrew Lauren and D.J. Gugenheim are producing for Andrew Lauren Productions (ALP), Brian Young is producing for Three Six Zero, Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon are producing for Brookstreet Pictures, which is financing, and Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler, and David Hinojosa of Killer Films are set as executive producers.
The movie will shoot partly in Poland with Madants, who previously worked with Andrew Lauren Productions on Claire Denis’ High Life.
Corbet last directed the Natalie Portman and Jude Law starrer Vox Lux, which debuted two years ago at the Venice Film Festival. His first feature, The Childhood of a Leader, won the Best Director and Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Debut Film at the same festival in 2015.
Corbet said: “Amidst a revamped cycle of populism and prejudice in the 21st Century, The Brutalist is a film which celebrates the triumphs of the most daring and accomplished visionaries; our ancestors. It is the project which is so far the closest to my heart and family history. I so look forward to reuniting with many of our closest collaborators, as well as some exciting new ones, to realise what we all anticipate to be a vital and urgent motion picture”.
Producer Andrew Lauren commented: “Brady’s third feature, The Brutalist, is a continuation of his unique interpretation of major historical moments of the past century. This story resonates for me as the grandson of an immigrant artist, and is unquestionably relevant to the political discourse we are having in America today.”
Joel Edgerton is represented by CAA and Anonymous Content. Marion Cotillard is represented by CAA and Agence Adéquat. Mark Rylance is represented by CAA. Sebastian Stan is represented by CAA, Brookside Artist Management and Sloane Offer Weber & Dern. Isaach De Bankóle is represented by Margrit Polak Management and Peach House. Vanessa Kirby is represented by CAA, Hamilton Hodell, Linden Entertainment, and Ziffren Brittenham. Alessandro Nivola is represented by CAA. Raffey Cassidy is represented by UTA and McKuin Frankel Whitehead LLP. Stacy Martin is represented by 42, WME and Agence Adéquat. Brady Corbet is represented by CAA and Three Six Zero Group