Eva Longoria has joined the cast of the forthcoming Tessa Thompson drama “Sylvie.”
From writer-director Eugene Ashe, the indie follows a young woman (Thompson) who meets an aspiring saxophonist (former NBA player and actor Nnamdi Asomugha) working at her farther’s Harlem record shop in the storied New York jazz age of the late ’50s.
After a summer romance, the pair meet again years later and finds their flame never wavered.
Asomugha is producing through his iAm21 Entertainment banner alongside Jonathan Baker (“The Banker”), Gabrielle Glore (“Dirty Laundry”), and Matthew Thurm (“Crown Heights”). Thompson will serve as executive producer. Declan Quinn (“Rachel Getting Married,” “Leaving Las Vegas”) will serve as cinematographer.
Details of Longoria’s character are under wraps. The actress, who is mostly directing for television these days, is repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
After years on ABC’s pop culture phenomenon “Desperate Housewives,” Longoria has worked largely behind the scenes in women and minority empowerment, political campaigns, and producing and directing series like Lifetime’s “Devious Maids” and “Telenovela.”
She will return to multiplexes this fall in the live-action Paramount film “Dora the Explorer,” and will mark her feature directorial debut at Universal with “24/7.” The latter follows a group of accountants who square off against their male colleagues to win a fraud case that will save their jobs. Paul Feig will produce.
She also has an ABC series on deck for June, “Grand Hotel,” starring Demián Bichir and Roselyn Sanchez.