EXCLUSIVE: Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story, The Big Short) and Aunjanue Ellis (The Birth of a Nation, Quantico) are set for Barry Jenkins’next film If Beale Street Could Talk. Currently in production, the drama is based on James Baldwin’s novel about Tish (newcomer KiKi Layne), a newly engaged Harlem woman who races against the clock to prove her lover’s innocence while carrying their first child to term.

The two join an already impressive cast roster that includes Stephan James, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Dave Franco, Ed Skrein, and Regina King.

Jenkins wrote the screen adaptation and is producing the project with Annapurna Pictures and Plan B.

Wittrock is repped by CAA and Ellis is with ICM.