Berlin 2013: Julia Stiles Joins Cast of 'The First'

Julia Stiles is joining the cast of The First, a film about Mary Pickford that director Jennifer DeLia and producer Julie Pacino of Poverty Row Entertainment will be promoting at the Berlin International Film Festival.

our editor recommends

AFM 2011: Mike Figgis to Direct Matt Dillon, Julia Stiles in 'Seconds of Pleasure'

Emmys 2011: 'Dexter's' Julia Stiles Says Murder Scenes Were Surprisingly Enjoyable (Q&A)

Julia Stiles and America Ferrera to Star in Indie Comedy 'It's a Disaster'

Related Topics

•Berlin International Film...

Stiles will play screenwriter Frances Marion, who often collaborated with Pickford, who will be played by Lily Rabe.

The cast of the film, which is expected to begin production this year, also includes Michael Pitt as actor Owen Moore and Ryan Simpkins as a young Pickford. DeLia will direct a script by Josh Fagin, based on Eileen Whitfield’s biography Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood. Pacino and Said Zahraoui will produce along with co-producer Dominick Fairbanks (grandson of Douglas Fairbanks Jr and great-grandson of Douglas Fairbanks, who was married to Pickford) and his U.K.-based Fairbanks Productions. 

“Julia is someone I could instantly envision in that era and within the world of Old Hollywood,” DeLia said. “I’ve watched her work since I was a kid in the mid-’90s when she was emerging as a very cool and very talented actress, and in my eyes, she has never wavered from being someone totally dedicated to what she does.”

Stiles, repped by ICM Partners, Untitled Entertainment and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern, is onscreen in Silver Linings Playbook. She recently finished shooting John Crowley’s Closed Circuit for Focus and next will take on a role in Aguar Rojas, a Jonathan King/Participant film.