Brigette Lundy-Paine and Golshifteh Farahani have joined cast of “City of Ghosts,” a supernatural neo-noir fiction podcast set in New York City.
In “City of Ghosts,” Lundy-Paine, star of Netflix’s “Atypical” and United Artists’ “Bill and Ted Face the Music,” plays El Rivkin, a misanthropic information broker who makes a living collecting and selling the dirty secrets of New York’s elite. After she’s hired to investigate a journalist’s murder, she starts hearing voices of the dead that haunt her — and discovers that one of them belongs to Sahar, the murdered journalist herself, voiced by Farahani (Apple TV Plus’ forthcoming “Invasion,” “Body of Lies”).
The podcast also stars Moises Arias (“Hannah Montana,” “The Jockey”) as Prizrak, and agoraphobic internet whiz who is Rivkin’s business partner and only friend. The cast also includes Erin Darke (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Good Girls Revolt”), James Scully (You”), Rich Sommer (“Mad Men”), Kevin Pollak (“A Few Good Men,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) and Navid Negahban (“Homeland,” “Aladdin”).
The first two episodes of “City of Ghosts” will premiere Oct. 12, with new episodes dropping every Tuesday through December. The show will be available to listen to for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon Music, Pandora and Stitcher.
The 10-episode podcast is produced by Storyteller’s Ink Productions. “City of Ghosts” was created and written by author Carina Green and filmmaker Ryan Patch, directed by Patch and produced by Joanne Vo.
“We started with the idea that big cities are haunted not just by ghosts, but the secrets that the wealthy and powerful keep at the expense of everyone else,” Green said. “Ryan and I then set out to explore that concept alongside themes of trauma, memory, and family. I also drew on my identity as a queer author to further shape the main character of El on the page.”
Green praised the show’s cast, calling them “extraordinary actors whose ability and voices make them such a superb fit for this multilayered drama. I can’t wait for everyone to experience this show.”
The show was produced entirely in quarantine over Zoom across four time zones by sending a complete home audio setup to every actor.
“The COVID-19 pandemic certainly changed the way actors were able to collaborate on and contribute to projects,” Lundy-Paine said in a statement. “Working over Zoom already gives you the feeling of talking to ghosts so, the whole thing felt apropos. I learned so much working on ‘City of Ghosts’ — how to record on a Zoom, that ghosts are real, and about the political games and municipal corruption that affect us all.”
Both Patch and Green are graduates of Royal Holloway University of London’s screenwriting program, where they met. Green will make her publishing debut with an episodic novel on Kakao Entertainment’s Tapas.io platform later this year. Patch’s most recent short film, “Regulation,” played at more than 25 film festivals and was acquired by Gunpowder and Sky’s Dust streaming platform. He’s repped by CAA.
“Collaborating with Carina to write this was thrilling,” Patch said. “She brought beautiful, well-rounded characters and a gripping, supernatural journey into El’s psyche, to which I layered my love of New York and political and financial thrillers.”
Listen to the “City of Ghosts” trailer below or at this link.
Pictured above: Brigette Lundy-Paine (l.),Golshifteh Farahani
