Riz Ahmed has just joined the Wes Anderson ensemble. The Sound of Metal star has joined the cast of Anderson‘s latest film, which is currently filming in Berlin. The Hollywood Reporter has the news that Ahmed will be joining Anderson regulars Bill Murray and Benicio del Toro in the as-yet-untitled film, as well as Anderson neophyte Michael Cera. The film was originally slated to begin shooting last year but was delayed by the dual WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes. In addition to its title, the film’s plot and character details are also being kept under wraps for now.
Anderson is coming off last year’s star-studded metafictional romp Asteroid City, and four short films for Netflix based on the short stories of Roald Dahl; the first, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, won this year’s Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short, making it Anderson‘s first-ever Oscar win. However, Anderson was unable to accept the Oscar in person, as his new film was scheduled to begin shooting in Berlin the night after last month’s ceremony. Amusingly, Ahmed won Best Live-Action Short Film himself two years earlier, for his own live-action short The Long Goodbye.
Who Is Riz Ahmed?
After appearances in a number of UK productions, including the satirical black comedy Four Lions, British actor Ahmed broke out as Jake Gyllenhaal‘s doomed sidekick in Nightcrawler. He subsequently starred in a number of high-profile projects, including Jason Bourne, Venom, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He won an Emmy for his role in the HBO miniseries The Night Of and was nominated for an Oscar for playing a metal drummer suffering from hearing loss in Sound of Metal. He recently starred alongside Jeremy Allen White and Jessie Buckley in the science fiction romance Fingernails and lent his voice to the Netflix animated film Nimona. He is next slated to star in a new film adaptation of Hamlet by Aneil Karia, who also collaborated with him on The Long Goodbye, and in the thriller Relay, alongside Lily James and Sam Worthington. Ahmed is also a hip-hop artist with two studio albums under his belt.
The untitled Wes Anderson film will be written by Anderson and frequent collaborator Roman Coppola. A member of the illustrious Coppola dynasty of filmmakers, Roman Coppola also co-wrote The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom, Isle of Dogs, The French Dispatch, and Asteroid City.
Anderson‘s as-yet-untitled new film is now in production; no release date has yet been set. Asteroid City is available to stream on Prime Video.
via Collider