The art world is ready for its Hollywood closeup, and the latest actors getting in on the action are Jessica Chastain and Adam Driver. Apple TV+ has acquired The Dealer, a series by the production company Media Res, which has also created The Morning Show, Pachinko and Extrapolations that stream on the service.
The Dealer is a drama described by Deadline—which first reported the news—as “a biting exploration of power, class, seduction and culture set inside the glittering world of the high-end art market”. Chastain will play an upwardly mobile gallerist, and Driver, the most talented though “unnerving” artist on her roster.
It is the latest production set in the world of galleries, museums and art fairs. Natalie Portman has been spotted at art fairs in Miami and Paris over the past six months in preparations for a role as an art dealer in her new film The Gallerist, also starring Jenna Ortega and Charli xcx. According to Deadline, Portman will play a “desperate dealer who conspires to sell a dead guy at Art Basel Miami Beach” (“that sounds believable,” a US dealer told The Art Newspaper during the fair).
Another art movie in the works is a television dramatisation of the 2021 documentary The Lost Leonardo, Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo da Vinci that was rediscovered and then sold at Christies for $450.3m, breaking records for the most valuable art transaction ever. Julianne Moore will play renowned art restorer Dianne Modestini.