Sebastian Maniscalco will join Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali in the real-life drama Green Book.
Green Book follows an Italian-American bouncer, Tony Lip (Mortensen), who in 1962 is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), one of the world’s finest jazz pianists, on a concert tour from New York City through the pre-Civil Rights era Deep South. They had to use the Negro Motorist Green Book to guide them to the few motels, restaurants and gas stations below the Mason-Dixon Line that served black customers.
Maniscalco will play Tony’s fast-talking brother-in-law, Johnny.
Peter Farrelly will direct from a script he wrote with Nick Vallelonga and Brian Currie.
Jim Burke, Charles Wessler and Farrelly will produce, along with Vallelonga and Currie. Participant’s Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King, along with Cinetic Media’s John Sloss and Steve Farneth, will executive produce, as will Kwame Parker.
Participant Media is fully financing the feature, with Amblin Partners set to distribute as a part of its deal with Participant.
Maniscalco, who is primarily known for his work as a stand-up comedian, is currently filming Martin Scorsese’s new movie The Irishman, set up at Netflix. His other film credits include the Will Ferrell/ Amy Poehler comedy The House.
He is repped by UTA, Levity and Morris Yorn.
