Lydia Hearst Joins Nicolas Cage In ‘Between Worlds’; Ann Mahoney Cast In ‘Dumplin’

Actress-model Lydia Hearst has come aboard Maria Pulera’s supernatural thriller Between Worlds. The indie stars Nicolas Cage as Joe, a down-on-his-luck truck driver haunted by the memory of his deceased wife (Hearst) and child. He meets Julie, a spiritually gifted woman who enlists Joe in a desperate effort to find the lost soul of her comatose daughter, Billie. But the spirit of Joe’s dead wife Mary proves stronger, possessing the young woman’s body and determined to settle her unfinished business with the living. Pulera wrote the screenplay and will produce along with Eric Banoun of Rise Up Films and Deviant Films’ David Hillary. Hearst will star in the film Beautiful, based on Katie Piper’s memoir, and co-star in the Marc Martinez-directed indie thriller 50K. She’s repped by APA and Management Production Entertainment

Ann Mahoney, who played Olivia in The Walking Dead, has been cast in Dumplin’, the Anne Fletcher-directed music-driven comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Danielle Macdonald. It centers on Willowdean/Dumplin (Macdonald), a confident, plus-sized, teen who, to spite her former beauty pageant queen mother (Aniston), joins in a local pageant. What starts as an impulsive one-day protest snowballs as Will inadvertently becomes the inspiration for a ragtag group of teenage outcasts joining the pageant. Dove Cameron, Luke Benward, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Maddie Baillio, Georgie Flores, and Ginger Minj co-star in the film, which is currently in production. Kristin Hahn wrote the screenplay, based on Julie Murphy’s 2015 YA novel, and is a producer along with Michael Costigan of COTA Films, Mohamed AlRafi, and Trish Hofmann. Aniston is exec producer. Mahoney can currently be seen Steven Soderbergh’s, Logan Lucky and up next in Same Kind of Different as Me with Renee Zellweger. She’s repped by Red Letter Entertainment.