Katherine Waterston has joined the upcoming drama thriller film Black Flies in a starring role opposite Oscar-winner Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan. Originally reported by Deadline, the Fantastic Beast star will be joining the project based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Shannon Burke. The adapted screenplay is penned by Ryan King, the story of Black Flies follows paramedics as they work to save the people's lives while taking a look into the toll that these heroic deeds take on their everyday lives.
While the nature of Waterston's character wasn't included in the report, we do know the roles that Penn and Sheridan will be portraying thanks to previous announcements. Sheridan plays Ollie Cross, a hopeful young man who drives an ambulance in preparation for his medical school, giving a street-level view of the job. Alongside him in the ambulance is Gene Rutkovsky (Penn), who is the grizzled veteran and the best of the best paramedics in the city. The story of the novel takes a deep dive into the everyday lives of these paramedics, from the joyful highs to the devastating lows, with the story of a single medic's struggle to maintain his desire to help despite his growing callousness at the center of it all.
Waterston most recently reprised her role as Tina Goldstein in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. In addition to her role in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, she also starred in last year's HBO limited series The Third Day and starred in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Other acting credits for her include Steve Jobs, Alien: Covenant, and the period romance The World to Come where she featured opposite Casey Affleck and Vanessa Kirby and received raved reviews for her performance. Her upcoming projects include Season 2 of HBO’s Perry Mason as well as Damien Chazelle's period drama, Babylon.
Filming for Black Flies is currently underway in New York City. Producers for the film include Warren Goz and Eric Gold for Sculptor Media as well as Christopher Kopp, and Lucan Toh. Penn, John Ira Palmer, and John Wildermuth also serve as producers for Projected Picture Works. Executive producers on the film are Luke Rodgers, Sheridan, James Masciello, Matthew Sidari, and Tom Ortenberg. The film is being produced under the Sculptor Media banner alongside Force Majeure (Masciello’s creative producing arm), and Projected Picture Works.
Speaking to Deadline, Goz spoke on how excited the team is to bring Waterston onto the project:
"We are so excited to have Katherine on board Black Flies. Black Flies is an authentic story about how the impact the job of a first responder has on their personal lives. We have assembled a cast of some of the finest actors in the world to portray this important story. Katherine’s incredible body of work in playing the most authentic roles makes her the perfect fit for Black Flies.”
Black Flies does not have a release date yet.