by FilmInk Staff
The White Lotus alum joins Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi and Pamela Anderson in an extraordinary feature film from director Kornél Mundruczó and screenwriter Kata Wéber
The White Lotus and Last of Us star Murray Bartlett has made a triumphant return home for five-time Cannes laureate director Kornél Mundruczó’s moving odyssey, Place To Be, currently filming in Sydney.
Bartlett, who won international fame and critical acclaim for his roles in the ground-breaking HBO series, Looking, and later, in the debut season of The White Lotus, will join the extraordinary cast, headlined by Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi and Pamela Anderson.
Written by multiple-award-winning screenwriter Kata Wéber (Pieces of a Woman, Jupiter’s Moon), the poignant drama about the last passions of life follows the unlikely friendship of an elderly woman [Burstyn] and middle-aged man [Waititi] as they travel from Chicago to New York to return a lost racing pigeon home.
Bartlett, a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Arts [NIDA] in Sydney, Australia, will play Anderson’s brother, Ron, plotting to move their mother Brooke [Burstyn] into a care facility, while also hoping to get his hands on their late artist father’s inheritance.
Since his US breakthrough cameo in Sex and the City way back in 2001, Bartlett has earned critical acclaim for successive roles, including the world’s most popular dramedy series right now, The White Lotus, playing Armond, a hapless luxury hotel manager in the murder mystery’s blockbuster 2021 debut season.
For this portrayal, Bartlett received nominations at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and Independent Spirit Awards and won at the AACTA awards, Critics’ Choice Television Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards.
His extensive TV credits have also included the scene-stealing role of Vinnie Green, the competing aerobics instructor, opposite Rose Byrne in the second season of hilarious Apple+ series, Physical.
He previously starred in Netflix’s Tales of the City, based on the books by Armistead Maupin and rebooted from the original mini-series, opposite Laura Linney, Olympia Dukakis, and Elliot Page.
Bartlett played opposite Kristen Wiig and June Diane Raphael in feature film, Girl Most Likely; opposite Geoffrey Rush in Dan and Dave; and Drew Barrymore in The Stand In. He also had the lead role in Jason Saltiel’s independent film, Beach House.
Following Place to Be, he will again collaborate with director Mundruczó and writer Weber in At the Sea, co-starring with Amy Adams [Sharp Objects, Hillbilly Elegy]. He will play Adams’ warm and loving husband, Martin.
He arrives in Sydney from Thailand where he just wrapped filming the lead role in the second season of Nine Perfect Strangers, opposite Nicole Kidman, in the television adaptation of Australian author, Liane Moriarty’s best-selling novel of the same name.
He is also currently working on Michael Sarnoski’s film, The Death of Robin Hood, opposite Hugh Jackman (X Men: Wolverine, Deadpool) and Jodie Comer (Killing Eve, Prima Facie).
Place to Be is produced by Jomon Thomas (Monkey Man, Hotel Mumbai), Megan Wynn (Together, Poker Face), and four-time Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning producer Alexander Rodnyansky (Loveless, Beanpole).
Executive producers include Natalya Pavchinskaya (S’YA Concept), Stuart Manashil, Pankaj Mamtora (Lonestar Films), Kanesh Mohana Sundaram (GVKM Elephant Pictures), Ashley Levinson, Sam Levinson, Viktoria Petranyi, David Edelstein and the late Kevin Turen.
WME Independent is handling international sales. The film is backed by S’YA Concept with further support from the NSW Government through Screen NSW’s Made in NSW fund.
Bartlett is represented by WME, Anonymous and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.
