While she's yet to make much of a splash on the silver screen, Jessica Brown Findlay has found unexpected success playing Lady Sybil Branson on Downtown Abbey, the Brit costume drama which has become a surprise hit here in America. It's likely due to her new found notoriety on the show that she's just earned her first major film role in Winter's Tale, the adaptation directed by super producer Akiva Goldsman.
Findlay had been circling the role as of last month, along with Lily Collins, Elizabeth Olsen, and Bella Heathcote. Testing for the male lead were Tom Hiddleston and Benjamin Walker, but Deadline now says Aaron Johnson(Kick-Ass) and the ever boring Garrett Hedlund(Four Brothers) are the front runners to play Peter Lake, an immigrant and thief who falls in with the wrong crowd, a group known as the Short Tails. The gang is led by Pearly Soames, expected to be played by Russell Crowe. Will Smith also has a small role as a judge. Findlay will play Beverly Penn, the woman Lake meets while in the midst of robbing her home.
The story based on Mark Helprin's best selling book is heavy on Biblical allegory and other fantasy elements, including a literal guardian angel in the form of a flying white horse.
