The upcoming movie adaptation of Chuck Klosterman’s 2008 debut novel Downtown Owl will star stage favorites Lily Rabe, Ed Harris, Vanessa Hudgens, and Finn Wittrock.
According to Deadline, Rabe will also be co-directing the movie with partner Hamish Linklater, who has adapted the screenplay. Downtown Owl is set in a North Dakota fictional town and follows the lives of a group of locals whose lives are upended in the wake of a deadly, white-out blizzard.
Rabe has originated roles in Broadway productions of Steel Magnolias and Seminar, and is Tony-nominated for her 2011 appearance as Portia in The Merchant of Venice. Her extensive on-screen career includes American Horror Story, The Whispers, and The Tender Bar. She will also appear as Lorena Hickok in the upcoming series The First Lady opposite Viola Davis and Gillian Anderson.
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Hudgens, known for her roles in the movie musical franchise High School Musical and Lin-Manuel Miranda's tick, tick...BOOM!, has stage credits that include Gigi and In the Heights at the Kennedy Center. She also starred in Grease: Live! and Rent: Live! on FOX.
Harris was last spotted on the Broadway stage in the original cast of To Kill A Mockingbird. He was Tony nominated for his role in Precious Sons. The four-time Oscar nominee's screen credits include Pollack, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, The Truman Show, and Netflix's The Lost Daughter.
Finn Wittrock, who appeared on Broadway in The Glass Menagerie and Death of a Salesman, will also appear in the film, as well as Jack Dylan Grazer and August Blanco Rosenstein. Grammy winner T Bone Burnett is developing original music.
The Sony Pictures film will be produced by Bettina Barrow and Rabe of Kill Claudio Productions, Rebecca Green and Linklater. Executive producers include Laura Rister, Lee Broda, and Tom McLeod. Closterman's other works include Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto and The Nineties.
