Tom Holland Finds His Leading Ladies: Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter Join the Fred Astaire Biopic

Some casting news just makes you grin. This is that.

After five years of “is this movie ever actually happening?” — yes, the Fred Astaire biopic is happening, and it just got a whole lot more interesting. Tom Holland finally has his leading ladies: Margaret Qualley is playing Adele Astaire, Fred’s older sister and original dance partner, and Sabrina Carpenter is stepping into the legendary shoes of Ginger Rogers.

The news broke via Deadline on Friday, and honestly? It’s one of the best casting announcements of the year. The untitled film is set up at Sony Pictures, directed by Paul King — the guy who made Paddington into a cinematic treasure and then somehow made a Willy Wonka origin story work. The script comes from Steven Levenson, who wrote Fosse/Verdon and the Tick, Tick… BOOM! movie. So the dance-cred behind the camera is solid.

Holland, 30, has been attached to play Astaire since the project was first announced, and he’s producing alongside Amy Pascal, his Spider-Man producer. But here’s the thing nobody expected: the movie isn’t really about Fred and Ginger. It’s about Fred and Adele. More on that in a minute, because that’s what makes this whole thing fascinating.

So… Sabrina Carpenter Is Acting Again?

Yeah. Let’s get the obvious question out of the way, because I know you’re thinking it.

Carpenter blew up as a pop star — we’re talking genuine, can’t-escape-her-songs, Grammy-level stardom — and somewhere along the way, the acting quietly stopped. She hasn’t been in a movie since 2022’s Tall Girl 2. For four years it’s been all music, all the time: the tours, the “Espresso” summer, the whole thing. She started out as a Disney Channel kid and did Broadway before any of that, but it’s been a minute.

Coming back for Ginger Rogers, of all roles? That’s not a toe-dip. That’s a cannonball.

But actually — hear me out — it kind of makes perfect sense. Ginger Rogers wasn’t just an actress who danced. She was a performer who could do everything, on demand, under pressure, with a smile plastered on. And Carpenter? Watch one of her concerts. The choreography is razor-sharp, the stamina is unreal, the precision timing — it’s all there. Playing Ginger will mean period ballroom and tap, which is a different animal, but the raw engine is the same. She’s a triple threat who just spent years proving it in arenas. Now she gets to prove it in a different arena entirely.

Word is she’s got another movie in the pipeline too, so this doesn’t look like a one-off vanity project. Looks more like the start of Act Two.

And Margaret Qualley as Adele? Chef’s Kiss.

If the Carpenter casting is the bold swing, the Qualley casting is the one that makes people who actually know dance history go “oh, oh, they get it.”

Qualley — Golden Globe nominee for Maid, scene-stealer in The Substance — trained as a serious ballet dancer before acting ever entered the picture. American Ballet Theatre. North Carolina School of the Arts. The real deal. She knows what it means to live in a rehearsal room. And Adele Astaire is, frankly, one of the great lost stories of show business.

Quick history lesson, because this is the part most people don’t know: Fred Astaire didn’t start out as Fred Astaire, movie star. He started out as half of a brother-sister vaudeville act from Omaha, Nebraska. Two kids. Adele was the older one, and by most accounts, she was the spark — funnier, bolder, the one audiences loved first. Together they conquered Broadway, then sailed to London and conquered the West End too.

And then in 1932, at the absolute peak of it all, Adele quit. Just… walked away. Married into the British aristocracy and left show business behind. Fred was on his own for the first time in his life, and what he did next was find a new partner named Ginger Rogers and become immortal.

Here’s the kicker, and it’s the reason this movie exists: there is no surviving footage of Adele Astaire dancing. None. Zero. Her work is, in director Paul King’s words, “lost to history.” So Qualley isn’t just playing a role — she’s reconstructing a ghost. A performer nobody alive has ever seen move. That’s an actor’s dream and a historian’s nightmare, all at once.

Five Years. Finally Moving.

This project has been around since 2021. Five years of development hell — or development patience, depending on how generous you’re feeling. In Hollywood, a project sitting that long usually means it’s dead. Every once in a while, though, it means someone’s being careful.

All signs point to careful here. The film is based on The Astaires: Fred & Adele, a book by Kathleen Riley that digs into the sibling story. And Holland isn’t treating this like another franchise gig. He’s reportedly already in rehearsals, and he’s been blunt about his goal: do all the dancing himself. No doubles. No cheat cuts. He wants the big numbers filmed in long, unbroken takes — which, if you know anything about Astaire, is exactly how the man demanded to be shot. Full body, full frame, no tricks. Astaire insisted the camera serve the dance, not chop it up. Holland wants to honor that.

Bold? Extremely. But here’s what people keep forgetting about Tom Holland: the guy was Billy Elliot. Like, actually Billy Elliot, on the West End stage, from 2008 to 2010, starting at age eleven. Ballet. Tap. Eight shows a week as a kid. That training doesn’t evaporate. When he says he wants to dance like Astaire, it’s not a celebrity vanity line — it’s a dancer talking.

Also, can we just acknowledge the year this man is having? Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Another Spider-Man (Brand New Day). A Pepsi commercial with Lionel Messi, because why not. And in between all of it, he’s in a rehearsal room learning to move like the greatest film dancer who ever lived. The man’s schedule is genuinely absurd.

The Director’s Take

Paul King sounds like a kid on Christmas morning about this one. He told The Hollywood Reporter:

“I am thrilled and honored to have been entrusted with telling the story of Fred Astaire and his original dance partner — his big sister Adele — to the big screen. Fred left a timeless legacy of dance on film — most famously in his collaborations with Ginger Rogers — while Adele’s work has been lost to history; indeed, no footage of her dancing survives. The cinematic challenge of bringing to life these icons of the twentieth century is one that I could not imagine without Tom Holland, Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter by my side.”

He’s right about the challenge, too. Astaire’s career ran seven decades. Thirty-plus film musicals. Ten pictures with Rogers — Top Hat, Swing Time, The Gay Divorcee, the whole canon. The guy didn’t just dance in movies; he reinvented how dance looked in movies. Playing him is basically an impossible assignment, which is why the filmmakers’ answer is so smart: don’t fake it. Cast people who can actually dance, point the camera at them, and get out of the way.

Think about it — Holland the ex-Billy Elliot, Qualley the ex-ballerina, Carpenter the arena-tested performer. All three leads can genuinely move. That’s not an accident. That’s a strategy.

And King? The Paddington movies work because they’re sincere without being corny — a harder trick than it looks. Wonka proved he can stage a big musical number. A Fred Astaire biopic needs both muscles: the intimate sibling story and the full-tilt spectacle. Honestly, it’s hard to think of a better fit.

The Family’s On Board (Which Matters More Than You’d Think)

Biopics live or die on family approval, and this one’s got it. Fred Astaire’s daughter, Ava Astaire McKenzie, is publicly backing the film. She told Variety:

“I’m delighted to support this endeavor to celebrate the extraordinary careers and enduring legacy of my father and aunt, who were among the biggest musical stars of their era.”

That’s about as warm as these endorsements get. And it goes further — her son Tyler McKenzie is on the project as a consultant and co-producer. The Astaire estate has always guarded Fred’s image pretty fiercely, so their involvement says a lot. This isn’t shaping up to be a sensationalized tell-all. It’s being made with the family’s blessing, and their fingerprints are on it.

That matters especially for the Adele side of the story. When you’re reconstructing someone no footage exists of, having the family in the room isn’t just nice — it’s the whole ballgame.

What Happens Now

So where does this leave us? Holland’s rehearsing. The three leads are locked. No title yet, no release date yet — but a five-year development saga suddenly feels like it’s shifting into gear. Cameras can’t be that far off.

And look, I’ll say it: this has awards-season written all over it. Beloved director. A transformative lead turn from one of the biggest movie stars alive. Two juicy supporting roles. A script by a guy who wrote Fosse/Verdon. A true story most people have never heard. The Adele angle is the secret weapon — everyone knows Fred and Ginger, nobody knows Fred and Adele, and the better story is the one you don’t know yet.

Tom Holland trading web-shooters for tap shoes. Margaret Qualley resurrecting a dancer that history erased. Sabrina Carpenter reminding the world she was an actress before she was a pop phenomenon. If even half of this delivers, we’re looking at something special.

Heaven, as Fred once sang — we’re in heaven. From where I’m sitting, the view looks pretty good.

Source: Just Jared