Up-and-coming actress Jessica Chastain has joined the cast of John Hillcoat’s movie ‘The Wettest County in the World,’ Slashfilm.com is reporting. The ‘Tree of Life’ star will be starring alongside Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy, who also recently signed on. Chastain will play Hardy’s love interest, who is described as “a big city woman now living in a small town who at one time was mixed up with gangsters.”
Both Amy Adams and Scarlett Johansson showed interest in the part before Chastain was signed. ‘The Wettest County in the World’ is just one of several new projects for the actress, who is also attached to Sam Worthington and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s ‘The Fields;’ Emma Stone’s ‘The Help;’ and the updated Shakespeare adaptation ‘Coriolanus,’ starring Ralph Fiennes.
‘The Wettest County in the World’ has been in development since last year. The script, which was written by Nick Cave, is based on Matt Bondurant’s family memoir. The book follows his grandfather and great-uncles as they run a bootlegging operation in Franklin County, Virginia, during Prohibition.
Written by: Karen Benardello
