Willem Dafoe to join Guillermo del Toro's next project Nightmare Alley

Willem Dafoe, who is awaiting the release of his horror film, The Lighthouse, is ready to dream up another nightmare. The actor is joining Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley. 

Bradley Cooper is headlining the Fox Searchlight production, which also counts Toni Collette, Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, and David Strathairn among its cast. Nightmare Alley is an adaptation of the 1946 noir novel by William Lindsay, which first hit the big screen with a 1947 adaptation. 

Nightmare Alley is set in a world of carnival hustlers and con men, telling the story of a mentalist (Cooper) who teams up with a psychologist in order to swindle the rich. Dafoe will play the head barker at a traveling carnival. 

Del Toro, who is directing the thriller, wrote the script with Kim Morgan. The filmmaker is aiming for an early 2020 shoot in Toronto.

Dafoe, a four-time Oscar nominee, has Edward Norton's Motherless Brooklyn coming out next month and The Lighthouse releasing in the US this Friday.