EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winner Halle Berry is in negotiations to join the cast of Crime 101, Bart Layton’s highly anticipated follow up to American Animals opposite Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Barry Keoghan. The pic will be released in theaters next year.
While plot details are being kept under wraps, the original short story by Winslow has shades of Heat as it follows high-level jewel thefts that are taking place up and down the Pacific Coast, which police have linked to Colombian cartels. Detective Lou Lubesnick has other ideas, and he zeroes in on one perp, a thief looking for a final score. The film will shoot this month.
Bart Layton is directing and wrote the script with contributions from Peter Straughan. Producers include Story Factory’s Shane Salerno, Working Title’s Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan, RAW’s Layton and Dimitri Doganis and Derrin Schlesinger. RAW’s Joely Fether will executive produce. Pedro Pascal was linked to the project last year to star with Hemsworth, but wound up departing the project due to scheduling conflicts. Hemsworth will also produce alongside his producing partner Ben Grayson
Berry’s illustrious acting career includes her 2002 historic win as the first, and only, African American woman to receive the Academy Award for Best Actor for her role in Monster’s Ball. She also starred in and produced the acclaimed Introducing Dorothy Dandridge for HBO for which she won both the Emmy and Golden Globe, and starred in and produced Frankie and Alice, which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination. Additional acting credits include Spikes Lee’s Jungle Fever, Boomerang with Eddie Murphy, X-Men, Die Another Day, The Call, and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, and most recently, Netflix’s The Union.
Through her production company HalleHolly, Berry has produced the Lionsgate thriller Never Let Go, and will soon work on Maude Vs. Maude and The Process. Berry is represented by WME, Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole and Range Media Partners.
