THE RED ROBIN Takes Flight With Cast Announcement

(THE RED ROBIN logo, above.)

By Terry Keefe




Actors Judd Hirsch, Ryan O'Nan, C.S. Lee, Jaime Ray Newman, Caroline Lagerfelt, and Joseph Lyle Taylor have all joined the cast of The Red Robin feature film, which begins shooting outside Philadelphia on December 3rd.

The Red Robin will be directed and produced by screenwriter Michael Z. Wechsler. The psychological thriller is Executive Produced by Jonathan Sanger (The Producers, The Elephant Man),  Rick Porras (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and Shawn Singh.

O’Nan will play Tommy Shellner, the adopted adult son of Hirsch’s Nathaniel Shellner, a famed, and dying, trauma psychiatrist who was rumored to have done some confidential work for the CIA during the Cold War. A family reunion on Nathan’s death bed spirals into chaos when Tommy accuses his father of adopting his large family of children for the purposes of dark experiments in mind control.

Earlier this year, O’Nan wrote, directed, and starred in The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best, playing half of a fictional musical duo with Michael Weston. Rhino Records was so taken with the Brooklyn Brothers that they signed O’Nan and Weston to record under their fictional band name shortly after the first festival screening. O’Nan also recently starred in Freelancers, with Robert De Niro and Forrest Whitaker. In January, O’Nan will shoot The Frozen Ground in Alaska, appropriately enough, opposite Nicolas Cage, and will then appear in the feature The Iceman, opposite Michael Shannon and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

C.S. Lee, who plays forensic investigator Vince Masuka, on “Dexter,” will portray Harry Shellner, the adopted brother of O’Nan’s Tommy.

Judd Hirsch earned an Academy Award nomination for his work playing a psychiatrist previously in Ordinary People, but his role as Nathaniel Shellner may reveal a far darker side of the same profession. Some of the many highlights of Hirsch’s long and distinguished career include his two Emmys for his work in “Taxi,” a Golden Globe for his work in the series “Dear John,” and a Tony Award for Conversations With My Father. He is currently appearing on “Damages," as well as on the big screen in The Muppets.

Jaime Ray Newman, who starred previously on “General Hospital,” “Eastwick,” and “Drop Dead Diva,” will play the role of Julie Shellner, the daughter of the family.

Caroline Lagerfelt of “Gossip Girl” has also joined the cast as Lillian Shellner, the matriarch of the Shellner house.

Joseph Lyle Taylor, who will shortly be seen as one of In Bruges writer-director Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, will play the role of Leonard, the one biological child of the family.

The Red Robin begins production outside Philadelphia on December 3^rd.


THE RED ROBIN TEASER TRAILER below: