Deadline reports that Academy Award-nominated Laura Linney has joined the cast of a new project with Viggo Mortensen, star of the recent Academy Award-winning Peter Farrelly film Green Book. Linney is often known for her work in Richard Curtis’ Love Actually, Peter Weir’s The Truman Show and Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale.
Mortensen has written the script and will star in the film—called Falling—which will also serve as his directorial debut. Aside from his recent role Green Book, the actor-turned-director is best known for his work in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings franchise as Aragorn, a key member of the Fellowship of the Ring.
Linney will play the sister of Mortensen’s protagonist John Peterson, a gay man whose life collides with that of his disapproving father, who will be played by Lance Henriksen, best known for playing Bishop in James Cameron’s Aliens. Rounding out the cast of Falling is Hannah Gross (Mindhunter) as his mother and Terry Chen (Jessica Jones and Almost Famous) as his partner.
Behind the scenes, Mortensen has brought in Ronald Sanders to edit and Carol Spier to do production design. Both are frequent David Cronenberg collaborators who worked with Mortensen on A History of Violence and Eastern Promises. The role of director of photography will be filled by Marcel Zyskind—with whom Mortensen previously worked on Hussein Amini’s The Two Faces of January.
Linney can currently be seen on Netflix’s Original drama series Ozark, where she plays Wendy, political consultant and wife of Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman), a financial advisor-turned-cartel money launderer.
