Alison Sudol, who is perhaps best known for her musical moniker “The Fine Frenzy”, is making the leap from singing to acting as she has reportedly joined the cast of Warner Bros‘ “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them“.
She was amongst the early names being discussed for the role of Queenie. Other shortlisted actresses include Saoirse Ronan (“Hanna”), Dakota Fanning (“The Twilight Saga“), and Lili Simmons (“Hawaii Five-O”). However, it is now confirmed that Sudol will star opposite Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterson in the “Harry Potter” spin-off film.
Born in 1984, Sudol first gained international fame through her singing career. In 2007, she debuted her first album, “One Cell in the Sea”, and appeared in an episode of “CSI:NY” as a musician targeted for death. She released her 2nd and 3rd albums, “Bomb in a Birdcage” and “Pines”, in 2009 and 2012 respectively. “Pines” received global critical acclaim and her songs have charted in the United States, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, and France, among other countries. As of October 2012, she has sold more than 650,000 albums. Her music has also been featured on numerous television shows as well as several major motion pictures
Prior to her singing career, she played minor roles under the name “Alison Monro”. In 2014, she starred in the pilot episode and another 2 episodes of the award-winning Amazon Studios series “Transparent” as Kaya, a singer and love interest of Jay Duplass’ character Josh. She also played an archeologist named Emma Wilson in “Dig”. Elle magazine named her one of “The 7 Most Exciting Newcomers on TV this Season” in January 2015.
Sudol will now make her big screen debut through “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” as Queenie, the younger sister of Waterson’s Tina, “a witch who operates in the U.S”. The sisters will meet Redmayne’s Newt Scamander when the magizoologist makes a stop in New York on his travels to find and document fantastic beasts. Majority of the movie will take place in the U.S., as opposed to the original “Harry Potter” series, which took place in United Kingdom for all books and movies.
Warner Bros. has yet to find a suitable candidate for Jacob, Scamander’s rival as Variety reported that the studio is “looking for more established faces” for the upcoming spin-off movie. The studio did, however, cast Ezra Miller for the role of Kredan, “a person with magical powers” who encounters Scamander “when he stops in New York City on his travels to find and document magical creatures”.
Set in New York City during the 1920s, the trilogy series is based on the Hogwarts textbook of the same name and it centres on its author and “magiczoologist”, Newt Scamander. The story follows the adventures of Scamander and the magical community in the Big Apple. “Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the “Harry Potter” series but an extension of the wizarding world,” said J.K. Rowling , who completed the script for the film adaptation last November.
David Heyman, who produced all 8 of the blockbuster “Harry Potter” features, will serve as the producer of the spin-off movie alongside Rowling, Steve Kloves, and Lionel Wigram, who served as an executive producer on the last 4 installments of the franchise.
The film, which is intended to be the first of a trilogy, will see its release in cinemas on 18th November 2016.
Source: Variety / Image source: Ace Showbiz
