Alan Cumming Joins Cast of Chuck Griffith's 'Shifting the Canvas'

High caliber of talent attached to buzz worthy New York Indie film.

New York, NY (PRWEB) May 22, 2008 -- Tony Award winning stage, film and television actor Alan Cumming is now the latest star to be cast in writer/director Chuck Griffith's upcoming indie motion picture, Shifting the Canvas.

Appearing as lead antagonist Jack Gresham, the eclectic Cumming will be playing the dramatic role of a Machiavellian New York real estate developer seeking to turn the urban hipster community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn into another gentrified neighborhood of "condos, PinkBerrys, and IKEAs."

Among his extensive film work, Cumming wrote, directed, produced and acted (with Jennifer Jason Leigh) in The Anniversary Party, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won a National Board of Review Award and two Independent Spirit Award nominations. Other films include: X Men 2: X Men United, the Spy Kids trilogy, Eyes Wide Shut, Emma, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Urbania, Nicholas Nickleby, Sweet Land (which won him a 2007 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature for also co-producing) Titus, Goldeneye and Circle of Friends. Cumming's television work includes The L Word and Reefer Madness on Showtime, Sex in the City on HBO and Tin Man on The Sci Fi Channel. In Britain he wrote and starred in the cult sitcom The High Life as well as many other films for the BBC including Bernard and the Genie for which he won a British Comedy award. He currently hosts Midnight Snack on The Sundance Channel and the upcoming Masterpiece Mystery! 2008 Series on PBS.

He is also no stranger to theater - his many credits include Sam Mendes' revival of Kander and Ebb's Cabaret (for which he won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theater World, New York Press, FANY and New York Public Advocate's Awards), Hamlet, The Threepenny Opera, Bent, The Seagull and Accidental Death of an Anarchist (for which he won The Olivier Award). Alan will next be seen on stage this summer at The 2008 Lincoln Center Festival in the North American Premiere of National Theatre of Scotland's production of Euripides' The Bacchae, directed by John Tiffany.

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