Al Pacino To Star In ‘Billy Knight’ Movie Alongside Charlie Heaton And Diana Silvers

DEADLINE – Al Pacino has been set to star in Billy Knight, an indie drama that will mark the feature film debut of writer-director Alec Griffen Roth. Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton and Diana Silvers (Space Force, Booksmart) will also topline the pic, which begins shooting this week in Los Angeles.

Prominent Productions’ Autumn Bailey-Ford and Cameron Burnett are producing with Sevier Crespo and Amanda Kiely, with Sarah Sarandos, Josh Clayton, Kirk Martin and Our World Films’ Peter Bortel executive producing.

The plot follows grad school students Alex (Heaton) and Emily (Silvers) as they traverse their aspiring careers as filmmakers. Alex is also grappling with the grief of losing his father, a failed screenwriter. The only thing his dad left him was a box of unfinished scripts and a handkerchief with the name “Billy Knight” embroidered on it. Alex embarks on a magical Hollywood adventure to track down the Billy Knight all while navigating the line between fiction and reality.

CAA is repping the film.

“Billy Knight is a love letter to cinema, a fantasy steeped in the history of this great art form,” Roth said. “It’s also the tale of two struggling artists, an introspective struggle of a young man trying to find his voice, and discovering what’s important in life. Having the incomparable Al Pacino and the incredible talents Charlie Heaton and Diana Silvers in the film is a dream come true.”

The Oscar-winning Pacino, who most recently was onscreen in Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, is repped by CAA. Heaton is repped by Gersh, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Sloan Offer. Silvers is repped by WME, Entertainment 360 and Jackoway Austen.

Netflix’s Romance ‘Lonely Planet’ Adds Diana Silvers & Younès Boucif

DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: Diana Silvers (Space Force) and Younès Boucif (Standing Up) have signed on to star alongside Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth in the Netflix film Lonely Planet, from writer-director Susannah Grant (Unbelievable), which is currently in production.

Lonely Planet is billed as a love story set in Morocco. Specifics with regard to its plot have thus far been kept under wraps. Grant is also producing alongside Sarah Timberman and 3dot Productions’ Liza Chasin, with VP Studio Film Kira Goldberg serving as creative lead on the project for Netflix.

The film continues the creative partnership between Netflix and 3dot, which has thus far produced the streamer’s recently-released thriller series, Anatomy of a Scandal, based on the book by Sarah Vaughan. 3dot entered into a multi-year, first-look film deal with Netflix in 2019, with adaptations of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestseller The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Diane Cardwell’s memoir Rockaway also in the works.

Silvers is a rising star who played Erin—the daughter of Steve Carell’s General Mark Naird—on Netflix’s comedy series Space Force. The actress has also previously been seen in films including Sarah Adina Smith’s drama Birds of Paradise, Tate Taylor’s action-thriller Ava with Jessica Chastain, Taylor’s horror-thriller Ma with Octavia Spencer, Olivia Wilde’s acclaimed comedy Booksmart for United Artists Releasing and M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass, as well as the Hulu series Into the Dark.

Boucif is a French actor who has previously appeared in the French-language Netflix series Standing Up, as well as the dramatic feature Magnetic Beats, from director Vincent Maël Cardona.

Silvers is represented by WME, Management 360 and Jackoway Austen Tyerman; Boucif By Time-Art.