It has been more than a decade since Woody Allen acted in a film he didn’t direct, but the recent Oscar-winner is set to join John Turturro in the indie comedy “Fading Gigolo,” which Turturro is writing and directing.
“Modern Family” star Sofia Vergara is in talks to take on a supporting role, and Sharon Stone is also set to co-star.
Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte (“The Kids Are All Right”) and French shingle MK2 are producing the pic, which finds Turturro and Allen playing cash-strapped best friends who decide to go into the gigolo business together and subsequently attract the suspicion of the Hasidic Jewish community in which they live. Duo take on the pseudonyms Virgil and Bongo, with Allen pimping out Turturro’s character until he falls for a Jewish widow, who has not yet been cast.
Stone will play Allen’s dermatologist who hires Turturro to sleep with her, while Vergara is expected to play another wealthy client who’s bored with her marriage and wants to have a threesome with Turturro and Stone.
Production is skedded to start this April in Gotham.
The last time Allen appeared in someone else’s project was back in 2000, when he starred in Alfonso Arau’s comedy “Picking Up the Pieces” and did an uncredited cameo in Peter Askin and Douglas McGrath’s “Company Man,” which also featured Turturro.
Allen is coming off an Oscar win for writing Sony Pictures Classics’ “Midnight in Paris,” for which he also earned a directing nomination. He does appear onscreen in his next film, “Nero Fiddled,” which SPC will release in June.
Turturro previously wrote, directed and produced the musical “Romance and Cigarettes,” and also directed the documentary “Passione,” about the musical roots and influences of Naples, Italy. Turturro played a writer in Allen’s 1986 pic “Hannah and Her Sisters.”
Allen is repped by ICM and MBST Entertainment, while CAA and Untitled Entertainment rep Vergara. Turturro is repped by Cinetic Media. Stone is repped by Paradigm and manager Chuck Binder.
