EXCLUSIVE: The Julia Set, the coming-of-age drama on which we were recently first to report, has added six to its cast: Nina Hoss (Tár), Chloe Bailey (Grown-ish), Carmen Ejogo (Selma), Nico Hiraga (Sweethearts), Liz Lin (Salt Along the Tongue), and Alex Dillard.
Production is underway in London. As previously announced, Chase Infiniti, Christopher Briney, Gillian Anderson, and Jason Isaacs lead the ensemble. Also new to the production is HanWay Films, which has come aboard to handle worldwide sales.
Hailing from writer-director Niki Byrne, The Julia Set has One Battle After Another breakout Infiniti playing Julia, a talented mathematician in a fiercely competitive academic environment. Briney, in his first film role since wrapping Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty, plays Pascal, the T.A. who conscripts her into an elite prep course for the most challenging math competition in the world, The Putnam Exam.
No word on roles to be played by the newcomers. Ellen Chenoweth (No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man, Past Lives) and Susanne Scheel (A House of Dynamite, Past Lives) cast the film, which Jeffrey Penman is producing alongside The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein (Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, Juror #2) and Lee Stollman (The Maze Runner, Stargirl), as well as Nick Scherma, Tayler Haynes, and Anderson. The film is being produced with the support of the If/Then initiative, which advances culture change by highlighting positive STEM role models, with If/Then’s Nicole G. Small and Margaret Black exec producing alongside Infiniti. The film is a Potato Salad Cosmic Domination Production in association with The Gotham Group, If/Then, G Nus Media, Cinetrain, and Melegrano.
In a statement accompanying the new castings, HanWay Film CEO Gabrielle Stewart shared, “We all loved Niki’s excellent screenplay following the journey of a young woman assuming her genius in an academic field dominated traditionally by men and how challenging that is for her. In a way this is a female-led Good Will Hunting. And the cast could not be more exciting nor of the moment!”
Hoss is a renowned German actor known for starring opposite Cate Blanchett in Todd Field’s Tár who will next be seen in Amazon MGM Studios’ Hedda, which premiered at TIFF. She is repped by The Artists Partnership, Players Agentur Management, and CAA.
Bailey is a four-time Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, producer, and actress who’s starred in projects like Grown-ish, Swarm, and Praise This. She is repped by CAA.
Breaking out with roles in Born to Be Blue, opposite Ethan Hawke, and Ava DuVernay’s Selma, where she played Coretta Scott King, Ejogo will next be seen in BBC’s Wild Cherry, from director Toby MacDonald. She is repped by WME and The Artists Partnership.
Hiraga stars opposite Kiernan Shipka in New Line’s Sweethearts, which is streaming on HBO Max. He also stars in Amy Landecker’s directorial debut For Worse, which premiered at SXSW this year. Most recently wrapping on Amazon MGM and Lionsgate’s The Devil’s Mouth, he is repped by WME and Myman Greenspan.
Previously seen in Aussie indies including Salt Along the Tongue, which premiered at SXSW Sydney, and Lonesome, Lin is repped by Haven Entertainment and Australian agency Sophie Jermyn Management.
An actor with Down syndrome making his film debut in The Julia Set, Dillard is repped by Gamut Management.
