Carpenter Tapped as Ginger Rogers in Astaire Biopic

Sabrina Carpenter will play Ginger Rogers opposite Tom Holland's Fred Astaire in Paul King's Astaire biopic, with Margaret Qualley as Adele Astaire.

Margaret Qualley joins the pair as Adele Astaire, Fred's older sister and his original dance partner on Broadway and in London's West End. King framed the film around both partnerships: Fred's legendary Hollywood collaborations with Rogers, and the earlier Fred-and-Adele act whose work, the director notes, has been lost to history because no footage of Adele dancing survives.

Paul King — best known for 'Paddington', 'Paddington 2' and 'Wonka' — said he was 'thrilled and honoured' to tell the story of Fred Astaire and his original partner, his big sister Adele. 'Fred left a timeless legacy of dance on film — most famously in his collaborations with Ginger Rogers — while Adele's work has been lost to history; indeed, no footage of her dancing survives,' King said in a statement quoted by multiple outlets. He added that the cinematic challenge of bringing these twentieth-century icons to life was one he 'could not imagine without Tom Holland, Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter by my side.' The script, written by King with Steven Levenson, adapts Kathleen Riley's biography 'The Astaires: Fred & Adele', with Riley serving as story and script consultant.

The project has been in development for more than five years — NME reports it has been brewing since Holland first confirmed his involvement in 2021 — and carries the approval of the Astaire estate. Fred Astaire's daughter, Ava Astaire McKenzie, said she was 'delighted to support this endeavor to celebrate the extraordinary careers and enduring legacy of my father and aunt.' Complex adds that her son Tyler McKenzie serves as consultant and co-producer, with Amy Pascal and Rachel O'Connor producing for Pascal Pictures alongside Ben Holden and Josh Hyams of Lightbulb Pictures and Holland through his Billy17 banner. That family sign-off matters in a genre where estate cooperation often decides how honestly a biopic can tell its story.

Holland has made the film his next project following 'The Odyssey' and 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day', and he told interviewers the dancing will be his own. 'I did my first few rehearsals recently, and it both filled me with excitement and absolute dread because I've got so much work to do to try and do Fred proud,' he said, per NME. He expressed a desire to use no doubles — to perform all the dancing and shoot the numbers in one shot, the way Astaire filmed them. Complex notes Holland revealed the project himself back in December 2021, telling the Associated Press the script had just arrived and that Amy Pascal had FaceTimed him about it while he was in the bath. A former 'Billy Elliot' stage dancer, he is betting his credibility on the single-take approach.

Ginger Rogers — who won a best actress Academy Award for 'Kitty Foyle' in 1941 — starred alongside Astaire in a run of beloved song-and-dance films including 'Top Hat', 'Swing Time' and 'The Barkleys of Broadway', with the London Evening Standard noting their routines often featured complicated choreography. NME counts ten Astaire-Rogers films, among them 'The Gay Divorcee', 'Swing Time' and 'Shall We Dance', making them one of cinema's most celebrated dance partnerships. Qualley, fresh from 'The Substance', will play Adele Astaire, who performed with her brother throughout the 1910s and '20s on Broadway and in the West End before retiring in 1932 — a star in her own right whose screen legacy is literally invisible, since no footage of her dancing survives.

For Carpenter, the casting caps a crowded stretch: Pitchfork notes she has performed at the Grammys, headlined Coachella with an Old Hollywood-inspired set, collaborated with Madonna and won her first Emmy for executive producing and performing in 'The Muppet Show'. She began her career as an actor, with credits including 'Law & Order: SVU', 'Orange Is the New Black', 'Girl Meets World', 'The Hate U Give' and 'Tall Girl' before music took over. The Evening Standard points out she and Qualley already reunited in the video for 'House Tour', which Qualley also featured in. With Holland in rehearsal and the family and estate on board, the untitled film now moves forward with its principal trio set — and fans of both Hollywood musicals and its stars watching to see whether the single-take promise survives production.