Baby Driver: Jon Bernthal Joins Cast, Filming Begins in Atlanta
As Edgar Wright revs the engines on his latest project, Baby Driver – the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll car chase film - one more cohort has been added to the cast list in the form of the Punisher himself, Jon Bernthal.
Along with the announcement that The Walking Dead star will join the cast comes a slew of new information about the cast and its various players as production begins in Atlanta.
Kevin Spacey will play crime kingpin Doc, who coerces a talented getaway driver nicknamed Baby (Ansel Elgort) to work for him. He'll be at the wheel for Doc's criminal associates, including Buddy (Jon Hamm), a handsome party animal, Buddy's main squeeze Darling (Eliza Gonzalez), who more than matches him in criminal tendencies and Bats (Jamie Foxx), their impulsive, trigger happy cohort. Baby is used to using his personal soundtrack to protect him from the chaos, but when the heist goes bad, he'll find his life and his girlfriend Deborah (Lily James) at risk.
According to Deadline, Bernthal will play a key role in the character of Griff.
The story is partly inspired by the “Blue Song” music video, which Wright directed for the band Mint Royale in 2003. The video featured an early appearance by The Mighty Boosh pairing of Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett – as well as Wright regulars Nick Frost and Michael Smiley.
A few years later – while working on Scott Pilgrim Vs The World – Wright had been blogging a photo a day from behind the scenes of production on that film and had singled out a preferred method of silence when he finally got around to a project that comes solely from Wright himself.
“I’d like to make Baby Driver next if possible. On this film and other things, I’ve been blogging furiously and putting up a photo every day, but I think when I do that one I’d like to go completely silent for once. Probably because it’s not an adaptation or anything, or a sequel to anything else. I’d like to just make it in private, basically.”
Well, that’s all changed now. If you want a few behind the scenes snippets from Baby Driver, you could do a lot worse than follow Wright’s Twitter and Instagram feed. With music playing such an integral part, Wright has already shared a few pictures from Atlanta’s Criminal Records, a few snaps of Director of Photography Bill Pope and a few location shots of an Atlanta diner.
What’s more, actress Lily James has been snapped on location – abandoning her usual corseted affairs in the likes of Downton Abbey and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for yellow skirt and knee-high socks (with the probably ubiquitous headphones camped to her ears).
Baby Driver is set for release on March 17th 2017