Variety is reporting that actress Emma Roberts is joining the cast of director Dito Montiel’s heist drama Empire State, which stars Liam Hemsworth and Dwayne Johnson, with plans to start filming in the spring.
Written by Adam Hazer based on real events from 1982, Hemsworth plays one of two friends from Queens who plan to rob an armored car depository with Roberts getting the role of the waitress who acts as his love interest. Johnson plays the New York detective assigned to the case of solving the crime.
Montiel first made his mark with the Queens-based A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, starring Shia LaBeouf and Channing Tatum, followed by two more films with Tatum, Fighting and last year’s police drama The Son of No One.
Although the story says that the production is scheduled to start in the spring, one wonders how that will work with Johnson already scheduled to film Michael Bay’s Pain and Gain (also based on a true crime story) in Miami starting next month.
(Photo credit: Apega/WENN)
