Oscar winner Julianne Moore (Still Alice) will join the cast of Paul Weitz’s upcoming drama El Canto, confirmed today. The long-gestating film is an adaptation of Ann Patchett’s 2001 bestselling novel. Demián Bichir (The Hateful Eight) and Ken Watanabe (The Sea of Trees) will also appear in the film. Weitz (who previously directed in Moore in 2012 drama Being Flynn) also co-penned the screenplay along with Anthony Weintraub. Sales for the film will kick off at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.

In El Canto, Moore will portray Roxane Coss, a celebrated American soprano, who travels to South America to perform a private concert at the house of a wealthy Japanese industrialist Katsumi Hosokawa (Watanabe). As the festivities are underway, the home is overrun by over by guerrillas, led by General Benjamin (Bichir), demanding the release of imprisoned comrades. An intense and arduous month-long impasse occurs where all parties are forced to confront their humanity.

Weitz, a current producer and sometime director of the Golden Globe winning Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle, last year directed the indie hit Grandma starring Lily Tomlin; El Canto, on first impression, marks a distinctive change of pace. Moore, who won an Oscar for Still Alice over a year ago, last appeared on screens in this summer’s indie dramedy Maggie’s Plan. She is next to be seen in Wonderstruck, a reunion with her Far From Heaven director Todd Haynes. She will also soon begin production on George Clooney’s Suburbicon and is currently shooting Kingsman: The Golden Circle,

We will stay tuned to the latest on El Canto.