Al Pacino and Jessica Chastain starring in adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear? Pretty sweet. But the cast that will be surrounding them in Lear Rex is even sweeter, as it’s a star-studded group that includes multiple Oscar and Emmy winners.
Deadline reports that writer/director Bernard Rose’s Lear Rex will include Oscar-winning actress Ariana DeBose (In the Heights), joined by Emmy winners Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), and Oscar nominee LaKeith Stanfield (Judas & the Black Messiah). In addition, Chris Messina, Ted Levine, Danny Huston, Matthew Jacobs, Rhys Coiro, and Stephen Dorff are in the ensemble.
Here’s a synopsis for the film: “In Lear Rex, an aging King Lear divides his land between his three daughters to prevent future conflict. But he rejects the young daughter who loves him and places his trust in her malevolent sisters, who strip him of his power and condemn him to a wretched wasteland of horror and insanity.”
With Pacino as Lear, Chastain is set to play Goneril, DeBose will star as Cordelia, Brosnahan as Regan, Dinklage as the Fool, Huston as Albany, Messina as Cornwall, Stanfield as Edmund, Levine as Kent, Jacobs as Gloucester, Coiro as Oswald and Dorff as Poor Tom.
Lear Rex begins shooting later this month, and expect it to be a major awards season factor in 2025.
