Following Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar win for his film The Shape of Water, the acclaimed director is now sitting back in the big chair as a producer for the forthcoming Nightmare Alley.

While reports surfaced that Leonardo DiCaprio would be taking on the lead role in the film, the actor ended up passing up on the film too focus on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Replacing him for the male lead role is Bradley Cooper who will possibly star opposite Cate Blanchett.

Variety reports that Blanchett, who one both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars, is in early talks to star in del Toro’s remake of the original 1987 Drama/Noir film. Both the original and the forthcoming film is based on Lindsay Gresham’s 1947 novel of the same name.

The story follows con-artist Stanton ‘Stan’ Carlisle, who teams up with a deceitful mentalist, Mademoiselle Zeena at a sleazy carnival.

Aside from Blanchett, big Hollywood names including Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Rooney Mara, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, Mark Povinelli, and Michael Shannon are eyeing prominent roles in the film as reported by Collider.

Del Toro and Kim Morgan will pen the film and base it closely to the original book rather than the first film. Backing the film is Fox Searchlight and production is reportedly starting early next year.

While this one will take a long time to brew, you can get your fix of del Toro’s work this month. Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark hits theaters on 23 August.