Dominique McElligott, who most recently starred in ABC’s “Astronaut Wives Club,” has been cast as a series regular in Amazon’s pilot “The Last Tycoon,” Variety has learned exclusively. She will star alongside Matt Bomer, Kelsey Grammer and Lily Collins in the period piece drama.
Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final unfinished novel, “The Last Tycoon” centers on Monroe Stahr (Bomer), Hollywood’s first wunderkind studio executive in the 1930’s, who is based on real-life film mogul Irving Thalberg. The series would follow Monroe as he climbs to the height of power, pitting him against his mentor and current head of the studio, Pat Brady (played by Kelsey Grammer) who is inspired by MGM co-founder Louis B. Mayer.
McElligott will play Kathleen Moore, a pretty and intelligent waitress who works at the restaurant frequented by most of the studio’s writers, which is where she meets Monroe who’s haunted by her resemblance to his late wife. Though Kathleen does not like the movie biz, she hits it off with Monroe who makes it his mission to get her on-screen.
The star-studded ensemble also includes Rosemarie DeWitt, who plays Grammer’s on-screen wife, Rose Brady. Collins plays the Brady’s daughter Celia, a young rich girl in love with Monroe, and when she offers up an intriguing movie pitch, he takes interest in her. While Celia and Kathleen both catch Monroe’s eye, McElligott’s character is expected to have a bigger presence in the first season, should the pilot be picked up to series.
Written, directed and exec produced by Billy Ray (“Captain Phillips, “The Hunger Games”), “The Last Tycoon” hails from Sony TV’s TriStar Television. The novel was adapted into a 1976 movie, which starred Robert De Niro as Monroe, plus Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum and Jack Nicholson.
Aside from “The Astronaut Wives Club,” McElligott also starred on “Hell on Wheels” and appeared in films “Leap Year” and David Chase’s “Not Fade Away.”
McElligott is repped by CAA and Dallas Smith at United Artists.
