Tony Winner Mandy Patinkin Signs On for Asif Kapadia's ALI & NINO

Deadline reports that Mandy Patinkin is currently in "advanced negotiations" to star in director Asif Kapadia's upcoming film ALI & NINO. The 'Homeland' star will join previously announced cast members Adam Bakri (Omar) and Maria Valverde (Exodus: Gods and Kings).

The film will be based on Kurban Said's best-selling novel by will center on "Ali, a Muslim boy, and Nino, a Christian Georgian girl, in Baku, Azerbaijan. Their love story plays out against the backdrop of World War I and Azerbaijan's fight for independence."

Filming is set to get underway on location in Baku, Azerbaijan and Istanbul, Turkey in February and March.

In his 1980 Broadway debut, Mandy Patinkin won a Tony Award for his role as Che in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita and was nominated in 1984 for his starring role as George in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Sunday in the Park with George. In 1991, he returned to Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical The Secret Garden and, in 1997, played a sold-out engagement of his one-man show, Mandy Patinkin in Concert, with all profits benefiting five charitable organizations.

Patinkin's other solo concerts - Dress Casual, Celebrating Sondheim and Mamaloshen - have been presented both on- and off-Broadway. In 2009, he celebrated the 20th anniversary of performing his solo concerts with a two-week run of all of his concerts in rep at New York's Public Theater, the very space he began his concert career. Patinkin continued the celebration with a critically acclaimed two-week run ofMandy Patinkin in Concert in London's West End at the Duke of York's Theatre.

His feature film credits include "Wish I Was Here" (upcoming), "The Wind Rises" (upcoming), "Everybody's Hero," "The Choking Man," "Pinero," "The Adventures of Elmo In Grouchland," "Lulu on the Bridge," "Men with Guns," "ThePrincess Bride," "Yentl" (1984 Golden Globe nomination), "The Music of Chance," "Daniel," "Ragtime," "Impromptu," "The Doctor," "Alien Nation," "Dick Tracy," "The House on Carroll Street," "True Colors," "Maxie" and "Squanto: Indian Warrior."

Patinkin won a 1995 Emmy Award (as well as a Golden Globe nomination) for his performance in the CBS seriesChicago Hope and starred in the CBS series Criminal Minds as FBI profiler Jason Gideon and in theShowtimeOriginal Series Dead Like Me as the reaper Rube Sofer. Patinkin returned to TV in the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning Showtime Original Series Homeland as CIA Division Chief Saul Berenson.

Photo by Walter McBride