Tom Holland’s Fred Astaire biopic has found its Ginger Rogers in pop star Sabrina Carpenter.
News broke on Friday, September 25, that Carpenter, 27, will star opposite Holland, 30, in the yet-to-be titled film, where Margaret Qualley will also appear as Fred’s sister, Adele Astaire.
“I am thrilled and honored to have been entrusted with telling the story of Fred Astaire and his original dance partner — his big sister Adele — to the big screen,” director Paul King told Variety in a statement. “Fred left a timeless legacy of dance on film — most famously in his collaborations with Ginger Rogers — while Adele’s work has been lost to history; indeed, no footage of her dancing survives.”
King continued, “The cinematic challenge of bringing to life these icons of the twentieth century is one that I could not imagine without Tom Holland, Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter by my side.”
Further details about the highly anticipated film, inspired by the renowned dancer who died in 1987, have not been announced at the time of publication. Holland, for his part, has already expressed his excitement to lace up his dancing shoes — again. (The Odyssey actor famously got his big break playing the titular role in Billy Elliot the Musical on London’s West End.)
“I am super excited about the challenge and equally daunted,” Holland teased on a July episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. “I think the thing I love the most about the script at the minute is it’s the story of two siblings, and being a sibling and a brother, is a huge part of my life. I don’t feel like I’ve had the opportunity to tap into that in a way.”
He continued at the time, “The movie is still very much something that we are figuring out, so I don’t really want to talk too much about the ins and outs of what the movie will be, but I think, thematically, it’s just really interesting, and it was finding that balance of, if you don’t know who Fred Astaire is, it’s still a movie for you because there’s so much more to his life than being a movie star that’s interesting.”
Until then, Holland has just started dance training.
“I did my first dance rehearsal the other day for Fred, and I was really excited afterwards,” he quipped on Live With Kelly and Mark in July. “I was equally terrified because I have so much work to do. One of my biggest regrets in my career is, after I finished Billy Elliot, I quit dancing, so [I’m grateful] to have an opportunity to get to re-explore that world that I loved so much.”
