Did somebody say tea party? Per Deadline, Carrie Coon, Alessandro Nivola and Chris Cooper have all been lined up to star alongside Keira Knightley in Matt Ruskin's next film, Boston Strangler. As previously reported, the film boasts Ridley Scott as a producer heavyweight, while Ruskin has written the script and will direct once shooting begins in the Massachusetts city in December. Also sitting in the producer chairs are Kevin Walsh and Michael Pruss of Scott Free, and Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara of LuckyChap Entertainment. We hope they've got their thick coats and jackets.
Both Nivola and Coon have had hot years, with the former striking gold in the form of The Many Saints of Newark, the film sequel to The Sopranos, for which he was acclaimed across the board. According to a Guardian interview in 2019, he met with some real-life mobsters ahead of the role, which might go some way in explaining the success of his performance. "I mean, I don't have any dirt on anybody, but I had the opportunity to talk to somebody who introduced me to somebody else," he said to them. "Trying to determine whether these guys are imitating the movies or the movies are imitating them is such a tricky thing." David Chase would probably agree. He's also set to star in an as-of-yet untitled David O' Russell movie next year.
Coon, on the other hand, is just coming off a starring role in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, playing the daughter of classic Ghostbuster Egon Spengler, which debuts this Friday. Last year she starred opposite Jude Law in the quiet Sundance hit The Nest, a domestic drama following a well-to-do family on the brink of financial collapse. Her upcoming HBO series, The Gilded Age, will be hotly anticipated by fans of prestige TV. Cooper was recently seen in Jon Stewart's political comedy Irresistible and the Amazon series Homecoming.
The film, based on the infamous Boston Strangler murders, is the true story of reporter Loretta McLaughlin, who was the first reporter to connect the murders and break the story of the Strangler. Two-time Academy Award nominee Knightley will play McLaughlin, who persevered beyond the deep sexism in the news industry - along with fellow journalist Jean Cole - to report on the case and keep local women up to date with case developments. Coon, Nivola and Cooper's characters are yet to be confirmed.
The film is yet to be dated.