George Clooney’s ‘The Tender Bar’ Rounds Out Cast, Amazon Studios Adaptation Of J.R. Moehringer Memoir Starts Production

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George Clooney’s ‘The Tender Bar’ Rounds Out Cast, Amazon Studios Adaptation Of J.R. Moehringer Memoir Starts Production

By Dino-Ray Ramos

Dino-Ray Ramos

Associate Editor/Reporter
@DinoRay


March 2, 2021 9:00am

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EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios’ forthcoming George Clooney-directed adaptation of The Tender Bar based on the memoir by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer J.R. Moehringer has rounded out the cast with Sondra James (Joker), Max Martini (Sgt. Will Garner), Michael Braun (The Affair), Matthew Delamater (Castle Rock), Max Casella (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Rhenzy Feliz (Marvel’s Runaways), Ivan Leung (The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu), Briana Middleton (3:35 To Boston)and newcomer Daniel Ranieri, who was recently seen ranting about people breaking quarantine on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Production has kicked off in Boston for the Amazon Studios feature.

Adapted by Oscar-winning writer William Monahan (The Departed, The Gambler), The Tender Bar stars Ben Affleck (The Way Back, Argo), Tye Sheridan (The X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Ready Player One), Lily Rabe (American Horror Story, Tell Me Your Secrets) and Christopher Lloyd (Back To The Future, Taxi).

The Tender Bar tells the story of J.R. (Sheridan) who grew up fatherless but looked to his sharp and quirky bartender Uncle Charlie (Affleck) as a father figure. As J.R.’s determined mother (Rabe) struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her—and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father (Lloyd)—J.R. begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams – with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.

Ranieri will play young version of J.R. while James will play his grandmother and Martini his absent father. He works as a DJ and J.R. knows him only as “The Voice” on the radio. Braun, Delamater and Casella are denizens of the bar while Feliz and Leung are J.R.’s more privileged college roommates. Middleton plays a beautiful young woman who finds herself Daisy to J.R.’s Gatsby.

Producers are Clooney and Oscar-winner Grant Heslov via their Smokehouse Pictures banner, and Ted Hope; Barbara A. Hall and Moehringer serve as executive producers.

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