Guillermo del Toro‘s Nightmare Alley already has a stacked cast, but another exciting addition can’t hurt. Character actor and Mindhunter scene-stealer Holt McCallany has come aboard the film, joining a line-up that includes Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, and Willem Defoe. The story follows a con-man who teams up with a psychiatrist to run a scam on unsuspecting saps.

Deadline has the scoop on Holt McCallany joining the Nightmare Alley cast. The actor is set to play “Anderson, a get-the-job-done bruiser with more going on that is first apparent from his tough guy persona.” McCallany joins Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Willem Defoe, Bradley Cooper, Toni Collette, and David Strathairn in filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s first directorial work since winning an Oscar for The Shape of Water.

Nightmare Alley is based on Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel of the same name, and revolves “around an ex-carnival con-man turned spiritualist, played by Cooper, who teams up with a female psychiatrist to scoop cash out of the wallets and lives of their wealthy marks with some less than holy moves – until things turn.” Gresham’s novel was previously adapted into a 1947 film, but del Toro’s adaptation is said to be much closer to the source material. The script for the new film comes from del Toro and Kim Morgan.

McCallany is one of those character actors who always stands out, but he’s mostly been known for supporting turns. His leading role in Mindhunter has clued more people into how talented he is, and I’m thrilled to see him land in a film with this cast and this director.

Speaking with Collider, del Toro said of his new film:

“Well what it is is that book was given to me in 1992 by Ron Perlman before I saw the Tyrone Power movie, and I loved the book. My adaptation that I’ve done with [co-writer] Kim Morgan is not necessarily — the entire book is impossible, it’s a saga. But there are elements that are darker in the book, and it’s the first chance I have — in my short films, I wanted to do noir. It was horror and noir. And now is the first chance I have to do a real ‘underbelly of society’ type of movie. [There are] no supernatural elements. Just a straight, really dark story.”

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