Feature Film

Zealot: Winnipeg Casting

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Details

Union:

Union

Area of media:

Feature Film

Network:

Paid?:

Yes

Rates:

ACTRA + 135% Advance

Deadline:

Sept 16, 2024

Shooting starts:

Oct 4, 2024 on or about

Shooting finishes:

Oct 18, 2024 on or about

Shooting locations:

Winnipeg & environs

Cities for response:

Winnipeg

Comments

CAST: Djimon Hounsou (HASSAN), Kodi Smit-PcPhee (LLOYD). Self-tapes will be requested from selected submissions. Unless otherwise noted below re. GRACE, please approach all dialogue with Standard American English.

Storyline

THE ZEALOT is a claustrophobic thriller about privilege, paranoia, and the assumptions we make about one another. Based on the Samuel Goldwyn Award-winning play, the film follows HASSAN, a Somali-American airport shuttle driver in Minneapolis, struggling to make ends meet as more and more of his customers switch to Uber and Lyft. When LLOYD, a stranded twentysomething at the airport, offers to pay Hassan to take him overland to Chicago, it seems worth the risk. Until it isn't.

Roles

Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Large Principal	Grace	Female 34 - 59 Years old
Description ANY RACE. ...Grace runs a team of passenger shuttles at the Minneapolis airport. Like Hassan, she’s an immigrant herself. He was one of her drivers until branching out on his own to operate his van as an independent contractor. So her former employee is now competing with her, but they’re still on good terms. She would happily welcome Hassan back on her team as he was her most reliable driver; she knows well the stress he is facing and tries to manipulate Hassan toward giving up and coming back to her...Grace survived severe hardship and poverty in her home country, and has now clawed her way toward some semblance of comparative success as a new-comer to the US. Like the story of many immigrants, determination, hard-work and grit have all played their part. Grace displays an aggressive, fiery sense of competition and would not hesitate to play a little dirty to get ahead. She has never cared if folks don’t think she’s ‘nice’; once a driver call her as an ‘asshole’ under his breath, and Grace embraces that word with a sense of pride. All that matters is never losing the modest degree of security her small business has afforded her. ...The character ‘Mrs. Nguyen’, the nail salon operator on the series Better Call Saul, may be considered a creative reference for Grace. NOTE: Grace speaks with an accent, and her origins may be from anywhere. Please approach her dialogue with authentic accents only.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Large Principal	Delivery Woman	Female 26 - 54 Years old
Description WHITE. On the way to Chicago, Hassan stops at a gas station in Wisconsin to fuel-up, with his passenger Lloyd in tow. As Hassan enters, various other customers are gathered around, watching breaking news about a bombing at the Minneapolis airport just a couple hours ago. One person in particular, a delivery woman, views Hassan with hostile suspicion wholly based upon his race and Arabic-sounding name. She gets into a highly charged verbal exchange with Lloyd, which he only inflames. ...This woman does not think of herself as a racist or hateful, just a concerned American, and there is nothing in her character that suggests she is a ‘typical’ racist. She is not shrill or fanatical, but only stating facts as she perceives them from her perspective, however biased that may be.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Principal	Clerk	All 30 - 49 Years old
Description WHITE. This gas station clerk is watching breaking news about a bombing at the Minneapolis airport just a couple hours ago. Upon seeing Hassan’s airport driver uniform, the clerk questions him if he was there when it happened. After a nasty verbal altercation breaks out between Hassan’s passenger Lloyd and a delivery woman, the clerk threatens to call the police.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Principal	Dairy Farmer	Male 49 - 70 Years old
Description WHITE. Along with other gas station customers, this dairy farmer is watching breaking news about the recent bombing at the Minneapolis airport. Like the clerk, he questions Hassan if he was there and saw anything?
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Principal	Ahmed	Male 6 - 8 Years old
Description BLACK. Hassan’s young son Ahmed absolutely adores his Dad, and wishes he could be just like him, driving people home from the airport in a big van. He knows his Dad is very careful to always wear a clean uniform, and Hassan lets him run the lint brush over his jacket much to Ahmed’s delight. Ahmed was born in the US and it’s important to Hassan that he and his wife Fatima only speak English in front of their son. PLEASE INCLUDE DATE OF BIRTH WITH SUBMISSION.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Principal	Park Ranger	Male 28 - 55 Years old
Description WHITE. It’s night and after a violent struggle with Lloyd, Hassan has abandoned his van on the side of the highway. A park ranger approaches to investigate, and Hassan calls out for help, approaching him. But the ranger perceives Hassan as a threat...This affords Lloyd the opportunity to come from behind, crushing the ranger’s skull with a large rock.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Principal	Lloyd's Mother	Female 56 - 69 Years old
Description WHITE. Gaunt and close to death, Lloyd’s mother is in palliative care. Lloyd is desperately trying to get to Chicago so he can get a connecting flight to see her, as the Minneapolis airport has closed due to the bombing. She’s taking very strong pain-killers, and drifts in and out of consciousness trying to speak with her son on the phone, and then later with Hassan.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Actor	Reporter on TV	All 27 - 59 Years old
Description ANY RACE. This journalist is reporting upon the breaking news of a bombing at the Minneapolis airport, presumably a terrorist attack.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Actor	Young Woman	Female 22 - 29 Years old
Description WHITE. Along with other gas station customers, this young woman is watching breaking news about the recent bombing at the Minneapolis airport. She is aghast and in a state of shock seeing the destruction, and injuries, on TV.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Actor	First Police Officer	Male 29 - 49 Years old
Description WHITE. Although completely innocent of any crime, this police office aggressively arrests Hassan on the side of the highway.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Actor	FBI Agent	All 30 - 49 Years old
Description ANY RACE. After being held for several days, this FBI agent retrieves Hassan from his cell. They have a little difficulty pronouncing his last name.

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