Richard Gere, Diana Silvers Join Edward Zwick’s Asymmetry
richard gere has joined Edward Zwick’s Asymmetry as Ezra, a 70-year-old novelist whose public persona hides vulnerability and unmet emotional needs. Diana Silvers will play Alice, an editorial assistant moving through New York’s literary world. The cast puts Zwick back in dramatic filmmaking after nearly a decade away.
Gere’s part gives the project its sharpest business signal: he has appeared in only five films over the past decade, with Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada as his most recent title in 2024. For a director returning to the screen with a literary adaptation, that kind of casting shifts Asymmetry from package news to a serious drama with marquee value.
Ezra and Alice in Central Park
The story turns on a chance encounter in Central Park that sparks a relationship with enough force to transform both characters’ lives. Zwick said, "Like so many others I was charmed by Lisa‘s book, not just because it’s emotional, insightful, and very funny, but because it’s about two people who discover that what the world calls asymmetry can in fact have another name: love."
That setup gives the film a clean two-hander structure: Silvers plays Alice on the ground level of New York publishing, while Gere plays Ezra from the other side of literary celebrity. The contrast is built into the roles, and it is the sort of casting that can carry a drama even before a release plan is announced.
From 2018 novel to screen
Asymmetry was released in 2018 and later drew attention as a literary phenomenon. The New Yorker called it that, included it in its list of 15 remarkable books by women shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century, and Barack Obama selected it for his end-of-year best books list.
Lisa Halliday contributed to the screenplay adaptation, with Marshall Herskovitz producing and Clay Pecorin of Rainmaker Films joining as co-producer and co-financier. FilmNation Entertainment secured international sales rights, while CAA Media Finance Group will co-represent domestic rights, which gives the project a structured sales push before audiences ever see a frame.
What the package signals
Zwick has been relatively quiet since 2018, and his last directorial effort, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, hit theaters eight years ago. That gap makes Asymmetry more than a routine adaptation: it is the return vehicle for a director with a recognized literary property and a lead actor whose recent film count has been limited.
For viewers, the practical takeaway is simple. This is now a cast-driven drama with a 70-year-old novelist, an editorial assistant, and a filmmaker who has not been on the board in nearly a decade. The package is built to sell on names and source material, and those pieces are now in place.
