According to Deadline, seven-time Oscar nominee Robert Duvall (who won the 1984 Best Actor Oscar for Tender Mercies) is the latest to join the cast of Steve McQueen’s crime thriller Widows. The impressive cast already boasts this year’s Best Actress Oscar winner Viola Davis (Fences), Michelle Rodriguez (Furious 7), Elizabeth Debicki (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo (Broadway’s The Color Purple) starring as four women whose husbands are killed during a failed armed robbery attempt. The surviving widows join together to pull off the heist themselves. Also in the cast are Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Andre Holland (Moonlight), Oscar-nominated actor Liam Neeson (Silence), and Colin Farrell (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them).
McQueen and Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) wrote the script which is based on the 1983 British miniseries of the same name. The miniseries was written by Lynda La Plante (Prime Suspect). The feature film adaptation was set up at New Regency, with See-Saw Films producing along with McQueen. Film 4 is co-financing. 20th Century Fox will distribute the film.
Duvall has been a prolific actor. His work has included such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather, True Grit, M*A*S*H, and Apocalypse Now. He recently starred in 2014’s The Judge opposite Robert Downey, Jr., earning him his seventh Oscar nom. He wrote, directed, and starred in 2015’s Wild Horses.
Widows is planned for theatrical release sometime in 2018.