Copyright Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Annabelle Wallis (The Mummy) has joined the cast of Pedro Pan, the historical thriller based on true events from director Richie Adams. Wallis is set to play Ms. Penny Powers, a British diplomat who took part in the Kindertransport during World War II and later became a key operative in Operation Pedro Pan, the child rescue mission that the film dramatizes. We recently scooped the project, which also stars Néstor Carbonell, Allen Leech, Danny Pino, Paz Vega and Andy García, and begins production in Mexico early next month. Set in the aftermath of Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution, Pedro Pan follows a Cuban socialite, an English schoolteacher and an Irish Catholic priest in Miami who spearhead a daring operation to help more than 14,000 children escape communist indoctrination and begin new lives in America — evading Castro’s secret police at every turn. The real-life Operation Pedro Pan took place between 1960 and 1962, when Cuban parents — fearing the indoctrination of their children under Castro’s regime — sent them to the United States in a clandestine program supported by the Catholic Church and the U.S. government. The children arrived without their parents, with little more than a suitcase, before being placed with relatives, foster families or Catholic charities. It remains the largest recorded child refugee exodus in the Western Hemisphere. Adams and Bart Gavigan (End of the Spear, Mouth of Hell) penned the script from a story by composer Carlos José Alvarez (Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami). Steve Shapiro (Find Me Falling, The November Man), Alvarez, and Liz and Ken Whitney (Tommy’s Honor, The Mongoose) are producing alongside Adams under his newly formed At Speed Pictures, with Luisa Gómez de Silva (All Is Lost, Saw X) providing production services. David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada, Marley & Me) and Brent Miller (I Carry You With Me, Before We Forget) are executive producers. Wallis is known for roles in films like Malignant, The Mummy, Tag, Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation, among many others. In television, her credits include Star Trek: Discovery, Peaky Blinders, The Loudest Voice and The Tudors. She is repped by UTA, Untitled Entertainment, United Agents and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
