Australian writer and director Diesel Schwarze has pegged Dane DeHaan and Rooney Mara to star in his upcoming musical Ziggy, which will be set in New York during the jazz age.
Schwarze is best known for being a Baz Luhrmann protege of sorts, having worked with the flashy director on projects such as Moulin Rogue and Luhrmann’s Broadway production of La Boheme. He’s also worked on a series of popular commercials. Ziggy will be the director’s debut feature.
The film’s plot centers around Ziggy (DeHaan), a hunchbacked escape artist who comes to New York in the midst of the late 1920s and the expanding culture of the city. He falls in love with the fiancee (Mara) of a media mogul and things spiral from there.
On the musical side of the project, Alex Da Kid is producing the original soundtrack, with Schwarze, DeHaan and Mara also collaborating to develop the music.
Neither actor has much experience singing on screen, so it’ll be exciting to see them in these roles. It’s safe to assume they’ve got pipes, or they wouldn’t be lined up for a musical, but sometimes fans aren’t as sold on an actor’s singing ability as those involved with the film are. (See Russell Crowe in Les Misérables.)
Ziggy still doesn’t have a release date, but be sure to check in with us as we’ll bring you all that news as soon as it’s announced.