Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley Gets a Release Date

Searchlight Pictures has announced that filmmaker Guillermo del Toro‘s new movie Nightmare Alley finally has a release date, with the star-studded feature set to arrive in theaters on December 3, 2021. The film marks del Toro’s first movie since winning the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for The Shape of Water, and with a release date like that it seems the studio thinks his follow-up could garner some awards attention as well. The fan favorite directed film from a script he co-wrote with Kim Morgan (The Forbidden Room), based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham, and also produced alongside J. Miles Dale (Antlers, The Shape of Water).

Nightmare Alley will feature a huge ensemble cast which includes Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born, American Sniper), Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine, Elizabeth), Academy Award nominee Toni Collette (Knives Out, The Sixth Sense), Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse, At Eternity’s Gate), Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water, Rhe Visitor), Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara (Carol, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Academy Award nominee David Strathairn (Lincoln, Good Night and Good Luck), and frequent Guillermo del Toro collaborator Ron Perlman (Pacific Rim, Hellboy).

The studio also released their official, albeit brief, synopsis of the film which reads: “In Nightmare Alley, an ambitious young carny (Bradley Cooper) with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who is even more dangerous than he is.”

“I’m inspired and elated to be joined by this brilliant cast,” del Toro previously said when production began. “Kim Morgan and I have worked with great passion to bring the dark, raw world and language of William Gresham to the screen and now we are joined by a superb group of artists and technicians to bring it to life.”

Del Toro will reunite with many of his previously collaborators for the film including costume designer Luis Sequeira (The Shape of Water, Mama), Director of Photography Dan Laustsen (The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak), and Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Berardi (The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak). Tamara Deverell of The Strain will reunite with del Toro as the film’s Production Designer with Editor Cam Mclauchlin (The Shape of Water, Pacific Rim) cutting the film.

Production on Nightmare Alley was halted last March and resumed in September, officially wrapping up in December after some brief reshoots.