Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter Join Tom Holland in Fred Astaire Biopic as Adele Astaire, Ginger Rogers

Sony Pictures has locked in the principal cast for its forthcoming Fred Astaire biographical film, which remains without an official title. Joining Tom Holland — whose involvement as the legendary hoofer was revealed some time ago — are Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter. Paul King will helm the picture, and Amy Pascal will produce. The project represents one of the more unusual challenges in recent musical cinema: resurrecting a performer whose art was never captured on film.

Qualley, a Golden Globe nominee for her breakout turn in the Netflix limited series "Maid" and later seen in "The Substance" and "Love of Your Life," has been cast as Adele Astaire. Carpenter, a Grammy-winning recording artist, will take on the role of Ginger Rogers. Decades before Fred Astaire achieved Hollywood immortality, he and his elder sister Adele were the toast of Broadway and London's West End, a sibling act whose sync was legendary among theatergoers of the 1910s and 1920s. Rogers, of course, became his most famous cinematic partner. Adele stepped away from the stage in 1932 following her marriage to Lord Charles Cavendish, bringing down the curtain on one of the most storied brother-sister partnerships in entertainment history — a story that popular culture has largely overlooked. For context, the Astaires' 1920s Broadway vehicles, including "Lady, Be Good!" and "Funny Face," were written by George and Ira Gershwin, making the siblings central to the Great American Songbook's earliest triumphs.

King addressed the casting in a prepared statement: "I am thrilled and honored to have been entrusted with telling the story of Fred Astaire and his original dance partner — his big sister Adele — to the big screen." He added that Fred's cinematic legacy, particularly his work opposite Ginger Rogers, endures, while Adele's contributions have effectively vanished from the historical record — no moving image of her dancing is known to exist. King called the prospect of reviving these 20th-century icons inconceivable without Holland, Qualley and Carpenter. That total absence of archival footage poses a rare creative problem: the filmmakers must piece together Adele's style from written accounts, photographs and secondhand testimony rather than studying her actual movement, a reconstruction effort that dance historians say has no real precedent for a figure of her stature.

The screenplay was adapted by King and Steven Levenson from Kathleen Riley's book "The Astaires: Fred & Adele," with Riley serving as a script and story consultant. Ava Astaire McKenzie, Fred's daughter, and her son Tyler McKenzie — a consultant and co-producer on the film — have given the project their public blessing. "I'm delighted to support this endeavor to celebrate the extraordinary careers and enduring legacy of my father and aunt, who were among the biggest musical stars of their era," Astaire McKenzie said, adding that Riley's biography provides a strong foundation and that the assembled creative team will handle the story of their partnership, both onstage and off, with care. She expressed confidence that the legacy will be beautifully brought to life for a new generation under the guidance of King, Levenson, Pascal and Holland.

Fred Astaire's career stretched across seven decades and more than 30 film musicals, in addition to his stage work in New York and London. He is perhaps best remembered for his screen collaborations with Rogers, among them "Swing Time" (1936), "The Gay Divorcee" (1934) and "Top Hat" (1935). Holland has been attached to the part for five years and has been training in the interim, coming off a massive summer in which "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" and "The Odyssey" — the two top-grossing releases of 2026 — ruled the box office. "I'm diving back into the dance studio," Holland said recently on "Good Morning America." Long before his Marvel stardom, Holland launched his career on the London stage, starring in the title role of "Billy Elliot the Musical" in the West End from 2008 to 2010. He has pledged to perform every step himself: "I have a desire to use no doubles, to do all of the dancing, to shoot those dances in one shot — how he would have done it."

Holland is producing via his Billy 17 banner alongside Pascal and Rachel O'Connor for Pascal Pictures, with Ben Holden and Josh Hyams producing for Lightbulb Pictures. Executive producers are Harry Holland and Will South for Billy17, Will Clarke and Andy Mayson for Altitude Films, and Levenson. The key players are represented as follows: Holland by WME and Sloane Offer; Qualley by CAA, Anonymous Content and Sloane Offer; Carpenter by Paradigm Talent Agency, Foundation Media Partners, Volara Management, Perlman Management Group and Goodman Genow; and King by Independent Talent Group, WME and Davis Law Group. Deadline was first to report Qualley's and Carpenter's involvement.