The Fred Astaire bio-pic casts Margaret Qualley & Sabrina Carpenter (as Ginger Rogers)

When Tom Holland promoted The Odyssey and the latest Spider-Man movie back to back, he was frequently asked what was next, given his hectic schedule. Tom sort of broke the news that the long-gestating Fred Astaire bio-pic would hopefully be next, given that he’s spent several years attached to it. Well, he was correct, they’ve finally put this project together. They have a script, they have a director, and now they’ve cast their Ginger Rogers and their Adele Astaire, Fred’s sister.

Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter have joined Tom Holland in the Spider-Man star’s next project: the untitled Fred Astaire biopic in which Holland will portray the iconic actor and dancer.

The development comes nearly five years after Holland first revealed he would be leading the project.

Qualley will star as Adele Astaire, and Carpenter will star as Ginger Rogers. Fred and Adele were major stars on Broadway and London’s West End before Fred Astaire went on to be one of cinema’s greatest stars with co-star and dance partner Rogers.

Paul King will direct the film. It is being produced by Amy Pascal and Rachel O’Connor on behalf of Pascal Pictures, Ben Holden and Josh Hyams on behalf of Lightbulb Pictures and Tom Holland on behalf of Billy17. Executive Producers are Harry Holland and Will South on behalf of Billy17, Will Clarke and Andy Mayson on behalf Altitude Films and Steven Levenson. Ava Astaire McKenzie lends her support to the project. Her son, Tyler McKenzie, serves as a consultant and co-producer.

[From Deadline]

I mean, as soon as they found a guy like Tom, with his dance background, this Astaire bio-pic should have been swiftly greenlit. It’s possible they wanted to wait until Tom got old enough to play a more mature Astaire though. And I love that Tom is coming in as a producer too. As for his costars… Margaret Qualley has a lengthy dance background. She had years of dance training, she was close to becoming a professional dancer, and she’s used her dance background in various projects as well (Fosse/Verdon, music videos and a memorable Kenzo commercial). Sabrina is, in my opinion, the wild card here. While Sabrina dances on stage and in her music videos, it’s not very high quality? Still, she seems to have enough of a dance background to know that she’ll have to train like hell to imitate Ginger Rogers, generally considered to be one of the best dancers ever on screen.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.