Dakota Fanning comes on board Showtime’s Ripley opposite Andrew Scott in new adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novels
It was announced in 2019 that Showtime was commissioning a series based on Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels.
And now, after the COVID-19 pandemic threw a spanner in the works, the production is starting to move forward.
Fleabag star Andrew Scott, 44, has been attached to star as Tom Ripley since the initial announcement and on Thursday, Showtime announced that he’ll be joined in the series by Dakota Fanning.
New role: Dakota Fanning, 27, has signed on to star in the Showtime series Ripley based on the best-selling novels by Patricia Highsmith
Fanning, 27, will play Marge Sherwood, an American living in Italy who starts to suspect Ripley’s motives when he shows up looking for her boyfriend Dickie Greenleaf.
Rising actor Johnny Flynn, 37, most recently seen in Netflix’s The Dig, will play Greenleaf.
In the series set in the 1960s, Ripley is hired by a wealthy New Yorker to travel to Italy to convince his wayward son Dickie to return home.
But along the way, Ripley starts to weave a complex web of deceit with murderous consequences.
Male leads: Irish actor Andrew Scott, 44,will star as Tom Ripley in the project first announced in 2019. Johnny Flynn, 37, has been cast as Dickie Greenleaf
Juicy part: Fanning will play Marge Sherwood, an American living in 1960s Italy who starts to suspect Ripley’s motives when he shows up looking for her boyfriend Dickie
The drama is being adapted from Highsmith’s novels by Schindler’s List scribe Steve Zaillan.
Production is set to begin in Italy later this year with a 2022 release date on Showtime.
In the 1999 movie The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed by the late Anthony Minghella, starred Matt Damon as Tom Ripley with Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge and Jude Law as Dickie.
Film incarnation: Matt Damon played Tom Ripley on the big screen in a 1999 movie directed by the late Anthony Minghella
A-listers: Gwyneth Paltrow starred in the film as Marge and Jude Law played Dickie
The news of Fanning’s casting comes on the heels of her joining Showtime’s anthology series The First Lady.
She’s set to play the daughter of President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford in the show.
The former child actress is best known for I Am Sam, Man On Fire, War Of The Worlds and The Twilight Saga.