Holland and Carpenter to Portray Astaire and Rogers in Upcoming Biopic

Sabrina Carpenter will step into the role of Ginger Rogers in an upcoming biopic about Fred Astaire, which stars Tom Holland.

The singer-actress will play the legendary performer opposite Holland as Astaire, while Margaret Qualley, known for The Substance, has been cast as Astaire’s older sister and original dance partner, Adele.

The untitled Sony Pictures feature will be directed by Paul King, the filmmaker behind Paddington, Paddington 2, and Wonka. The project has been in development since Holland initially confirmed his participation in 2021.

“I am thrilled and honoured to have been entrusted with bringing the story of Fred Astaire and his original dance partner—his big sister Adele—to the big screen,” King stated.

“Fred left a timeless legacy of dance on film—most famously through his collaborations with Ginger Rogers—while Adele’s work has been lost to history; indeed, no footage of her dancing survives.”

He added, “The cinematic challenge of bringing these twentieth-century icons to life is one I could not imagine undertaking without Tom Holland, Margaret Qualley, and Sabrina Carpenter by my side.”

The film will explore Fred and Adele Astaire’s hugely successful partnership on Broadway and in London’s West End during the 1910s and 1920s, before Adele retired from performing in 1932 and Fred became one of Hollywood’s defining musical stars.

He subsequently made ten films with Rogers, including The Gay Divorcee, Top Hat, Swing Time, and Shall We Dance, cementing their status as one of cinema’s most celebrated dance partnerships.

The biopic is based on Kathleen Riley’s biography The Astaires: Fred & Adele, with Riley also serving as a story and script consultant.

Carpenter had a notable acting career before becoming one of the world’s biggest pop stars. Prior to releasing her debut album, she appeared in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Orange Is the New Black, before scoring her breakout role as Maya Hart in the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World.

Her subsequent film credits include The Hate U Give, Tall Girl, Work It, Tall Girl 2, and Emergency, though she has not appeared in a feature film since 2022.

Qualley recently appeared alongside Carpenter in the music video for ‘House Tour’, which Carpenter also highlighted during her Old Hollywood-inspired Coachella 2026 performance.

Holland confirmed in July that the Astaire biopic would be his next project, following The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

“I did my first few rehearsals recently, and it both filled me with excitement and absolute dread because I have so much work to do to try and do Fred proud,” he said.

“I want to use no doubles—to do all of the dancing and shoot those dances in a single take, just as he would have done it.”

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