Kingston’s Chris Cooper joins cast of ‘Boston Strangler’

Kingston resident and Academy Award-winner Chris Cooper will co-star with Keira Knightley in the film “Boston Strangler,” a crime drama based on the real-life case of the serial killer who murdered 13 women in the Boston area during the early 1960s.

Boston native Alessandro Nivola (“Many Saints of Newark”) and Carrie Coon (“Gone Girl”) will also join the cast. Their roles were not specified.

'Boston Strangler':Keira Knightley to star as Milton reporter in serial killer true story

Written and directed by Matt Ruskin (“Crown Heights”), the movie will begin shooting Dec. 6 in Belmont.

A location in Braintree is serving as “home base” for the production.

The movie will center on how the late Milton journalist Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley, “Pirates of the Caribbean”) and her fellow Boston Record American reporter, Scituate native Jean (Cole) Harris, challenged the sexism of the early 1960s in covering the story. They were the first reporters to connect the murders and to break the story of the Boston Strangler.

Cooper won an Academy Award in 2003 as best supporting actor for his work in "Adaptation."  He was nominated for a Tony Award in 2017 for “A Doll’s House, Part 2.” Other film work includes "Seabiscuit," "Capote," "American Beauty," “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and “The Bourne Identity.”

In a 2019 interview with The Patriot Ledger Cooper said he loved filming “Little Women,” “The Company Men,” and Ben Affleck’s “The Town” in Massachusetts where it's "get in the car and go to work." The actor lives 30 miles south of Boston in Kingston, with his wife Marianne Leone, a writer and actress.

20th Century Studios is producing the film. A release date hasn’t been set.

Moviemaking in Massachusetts

The movie also caps off a busy year of filming in the state and on the South Shore. The star-studded satire “Don’t Look Up” filmed last winter in Weymouth and opens Dec. 10 in theaters on Netflix Dec. 24. It stars Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio. George Clooney’s coming-of-age drama “The Tender Bar” filmed in Braintree and hits theaters Dec. 22 and Amazon Prime Jan. 7. The Christmas movie-musical “Spirited, which filmed scenes at the South Shore Plaza and stars Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, is wrapped at the end of October. Jon Hamm (“Madmen”) was spotted filming scenes for “Confess, Fletch” at the Oaks Estate in Cohasset this summer. Scenes for “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” a Whitney Houston biopic starring Naomi Ackie (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”), are being shot at Marina Studios on Victory Road in Marina Bay. Production on the film will wrap in November.

Reel attraction:Massachusetts is a hot Hollywood alternative

Mile High homage:Chef honors his native Plymouth with The Plimoth restaurant

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. Please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Patriot Ledger subscription. Here is our latest offer.

Reach Dana Barbuto at dbarbuto@patriotledger.com.