With anticipation high for Guillermo del Toro’s take on Nightmare Alley, the project has now brought in Willem Dafoe.

Via Variety, the genre fave – who most recently starred alongside Robert Pattinson in The Lighthouse – will play a high-up figure of a travelling carnival who gives Bradley Cooper’s character a job.

In addition to Cooper on headlining duties, Dafoe joins a Nightmare Alley cast that includes Toni Collette, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.

Written by del Toro and Kim Morgan, Nightmare Alley will be del Toro’s take on William Lindsay Graham’s 1946 novel of the same name. The source material – not to mention the 1947 movie adaptation – centres on a conman who teams with a female psychiatrist to trick some poor saps out of their money.

As ever, expect more on del Toro’s Nightmare Alley as it continues to develop.