On the heels of roles in three well-received Sundance films, Joe Cole (“Green Room”) and Jayson Warner Smith (“The Birth of a Nation,” “Christine”) have joined the cast of DreamWorks’ PTSD drama “Thank You For Your Service,” TheWrap has learned.
Miles Teller, Haley Bennett, newcomer Beulah Koale and rising star Scott Haze lead the cast of the film, which will serve as the directorial debut of “American Sniper” writer Jason Hall.
Universal Pictures will distribute “Thank You For Your Service,” which is being produced by Jon Kilik and executive produced by by Ann Ruark. Oscar-nominated writer Hall adapted the nonfiction book by David Finkel.
“Thank You for Your Service” follows a group of U.S. soldiers who return from Iraq and struggle to integrate back into their civilian lives with their families, as they’re still haunted by the horrific memories of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they’ve left the battlefield.
Teller will play Adam Schumann, a great soldier who leaves Iraq a broken man, and Bennett will play his loyal, supportive wife.
Cole will play a young soldier in crisis who returns home to find his fiancée has left him and taken their daughter, while Smith will share scenes with Teller as a receptionist at a Veterans Affairs office.
Cole broke out playing John Shelby on “Peaky Blinders” and parlayed his performance on that hit series into key roles in “The Secret In Their Eyes” opposite Julia Roberts and Jeremy Saulnier’s neo-Nazi thriller “Green Room,” which A24 will release this spring. He’ll soon be seen alongside Kirsten Dunst in the indie movie “Woodshock.” He’s represented by CAA and Troika.
Smith stood out among the supporting cast of Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation,” which sold to Fox Searchlight in a record-breaking $17.5 million deal. The popular character actor plays a sadistic master in the acclaimed drama about Nat Turner, who led a slave revolt.
Smith previously co-starred in Sundance TV’s acclaimed series “Rectify,” and his last five films have debuted at either Sundance or the Toronto International Film Festival — “The Birth of a Nation,” “Christine,” “99 Homes,” “Mississippi Grind” and the Hank Williams biopic “I Saw the Light.”
Smith will soon be seen as one of Tom Cruise‘s trusted pilots in Doug Liman‘s drug smuggling movie “Mena” and as Maisie Williams‘ abusive uncle in “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.” He’s represented by Alexander White Agency and House of Representatives.