Showtime’s Ripley has cast its leading lady.
Dakota Fanning will star opposite Fleabag favorite Andrew Scott in the drama series based on Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels.
From Oscar winner Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, The Night Of), Scott stars as Tom Ripley, a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York who is hired by a wealthy businessman to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home. Tom’s acceptance of the job is his first step into a complex life of deceit.
Fanning will portray Marge Sherwood, an American living in Italy who suspects darker motives underlie Tom’s affability. Johnny Flynn (Beast) co-stars as Dickie Greenleaf. Zaillian writes and directs the first season of the series. Production will begin later this year in Italy for an anticipated 2022 debut on Showtime.
“Dakota Fanning is the perfect choice to play the deliciously complicated Marge opposite Andrew Scott’s Tom Ripley,” said Amy Israel, exec vp scripted programming at Showtime. “She’s an actor that brings smarts and vulnerability to every part, with so much bubbling beneath the surface. We can’t wait to see her sink her teeth into this role in Steve Zallian’s Ripley.”
The casting expands Fanning’s relationship with Showtime after the actress was recently tapped to play Susan Elizabeth Ford, the only daughter and youngest child of President Gerald and Betty Ford, in the cabler’s anthology The First Lady. Fanning’s TV credits include TNT’s The Alienist and its sequel, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, War of the Worlds and I Am Sam. She’s repped by UTA, Echo Lake Entertainment and attorney Steve Warren.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter