Fred Astaire Movie Starring Tom Holland Will Be Helmed By Paddington Director Paul King

Today in news you surely didn't see coming, "Paddington" film series director Paul King will be taking the helm on Sony Pictures' untitled Fred Astaire drama — the one starring our very own friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Tom Holland.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, King has signed on to direct the project, which Holland revealed he was working on in 2021. Amy Pascal, Rachael O'Conner, Ben Holden, and Josh Hyams will be producing. The outlet also reports that the exact plot of the upcoming film is being kept under wraps.

One thing we do know, however, is that the movie will center on the relationship between Astaire and his sister, Adele. For more than 20 years, the siblings were thick as thieves and worked the vaudeville scene from the Midwest to Broadway and London's West End by the end of the roaring '20s. They split as a performing duo in 1932 after Adele got married. She was initially the star of the act, but her brother's iconic talents began to take the spotlight throughout their tenure together as performers. Later, of course, Astaire would become a giant of the motion picture industry through his dancing skills.

Clearly, this film has been in the developmental pipeline for some time now, so attaching a director certainly means there's some serious movement. The original script was written by Noah King, but THR reports that Lee Hall is currently reworking that draft. Hall wrote both the film and stage musical versions of the beloved "Billy Elliot," the latter of which Tom Holland starred in on the West End from 2008 to 2010 — which is to say, Hall and Holland have already worked together in the past.

The ballet-dancing film earned Hall an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, and his other credits include "War Horse" and "Rocketman." As for King, his work on the "Paddington" films has been a global success, and he is slated to executive produce the third installment from a script he co-wrote. He most recently directed the upcoming "Wonka" film starring Timothée Chalamet, which is due out in late 2023.

Nothing else is known about this Astaire sibling biopic, but with Holland and Hall in pivotal roles, it seems like the movie could be a real hit. Holland is unsurprisingly very adept in all of the things Fred Astaire was good at, and he definitely enjoys getting to flex those skills. Mainstream Hollywood hasn't really given him the opportunity to sing and dance much, so it'll be fun to see him tap and jive his way through an homage to a pivotal figure in dance history ... assuming the film makes it to release, of course. You never know these days.