James Bond will have to wait because Tom Holland is putting on his dancing shoes!
After recently claiming he’d love to play the 007 agent, the actor has been cast as Fred Astaire.
Instead of fighting off villains, Holland will have to fight off achy legs if he’s to replicate the dance moves of film’s most legendary song and dance man.
As Variety reports, during a “Spider-Man: No Way Home” promotional event over the weekend, Holland, 25, confirmed to reporters that he will be playing Astaire in an upcoming biopic from Sony, though the film is in its most nascent stage of development.
“The script came in a week ago,” Holland said, adding, “I haven’t read it yet; they haven’t given it to me.”
Related
Holland must be a huge Astaire fan to commit to the project before even reading the script, but that would make sense, given his musical theater background.
Trying to replicate the historic, effortless charm of Astaire would be a daunting task for any actor, but given Holland’s previous work -- he played the title role in Billy Elliot on the West End from 2008-2010 -- he should be up to the challenge of dancing and singing the part.
Astaire starred in over 30 movie musicals in his career, not to mention his work in live theater on Broadway and the West End.
Of course he is most famously known for the frequent, beloved pairings in the 1930s with co-star Ginger Rogers that practically created their own genre of high-energy, romantic, gleamingly gorgeous and positive musicals -- like “Swing Time,” “The Barkleys of Broadway,” and Top Hat” -- that helped America smile through some of its most trying times during the Depression.
There is already an Astaire-related biopic in the works. Jamie Bell has been tagged to play Astaire opposite Margaret Qualley’s Ginger Rogers in an upcoming movie from Amazon Studios and Automatik. Bell played Billy Elliot in the Oscar-nominated 2000 movie version of the musical.
Related
Whether Holland is completely done as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is up for debate. He recently commented in a GQ in a cover story that if he's playing Spider-Man after 30, he has "done something wrong."
The producer for the Sony film, Amy Pascal, has stated that, "We are getting ready to make the next Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland and Marvel. We're thinking of this as three films, and now we're going to go onto the next three. ["No Way Home"] is not the last of our MCU movies."
However it goes, Holland sounds excited to be tackling Astaire. But before he trips the lights fantastic, you can catch him swinging over them when “Spider-Man: No Way Home” debuts in theaters on December 17.
Lights, camera, action! Get the latest updates on movies and television from The Reel Buzz on Audacy.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign up and follow Audacy
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram