Riz Ahmed has joined the cast of Wes Anderson’s latest untitled film project, which is currently shooting in Berlin, according to an insider with knowledge of the project.
Benecio del Toro, Bill Murray and Michael Cera are also part of the project, with plot details being kept under wraps. Anderson wrote the screenplay with frequent collaborator Roman Coppola.
The project was initially eyeing a fall 2023 production start but faced delays due to the twin labor strikes. The untitled Anderson project has no distributor at this juncture. Focus Features released Anderson’s last film, 2023’s “Asteroid City.”
Ahmed, who most recently starred in Apple film “Fingernails” with Jeremy Allen White and Jessie Buckely, has recent credits including “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” Sony’s “Venom” and the Jake Gyllenhaal-led thriller “Nightcrawler.” His performances in “Sound of Metal” and “The Night Of” garnered him an Oscar nomination and Emmy win, respectively.
Ahmed later won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for 2022’s “The Long Goodbye.”
Anderson also recently garnered his first Oscar win in the Best Live Action Short Film category for his Roald Dahl adaptation “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” Anderson couldn’t make the ceremony because of his commitment to his current project.
“If I could have been there, I (along with Steven Rales) would have said ‘Thank you’ to: the family of Roald Dahl, the team at Netflix, Benedict and Ralph and Ben Kingsley and Dev and Richard and Bob and Adam and Jeremy and John and Jim and Rich and Jim and Polly and more,” Anderson said in a statement.
Riz Ahmed is repped by WME and attorneys Tara Kole and Danny Passman.
The Hollywood Reporter first reported the news.
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