Tom Holland and Austin Butler to Star as Drug-Smuggling Brothers in American Speed
Tom Holland (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Cherry) and Austin Butler (Dune: Part Two, The Bikeriders) are reportedly set to play drug-smuggling brothers in American Speed.
According to Jeff Sneider’s The InSneider, the film will be produced by Oscar-winning producer Charles Roven (The Dark Knight, Oppenheimer) under his Atlas Entertainment banner. No director, screenwriter, or studio has been attached yet.
In the film, Holland and Butler will portray Don and Bill Whittington—real-life brothers who gained notoriety in both motorsport and criminal activity. In the 1980s, Don and Bill were implicated in a drug trafficking operation that reportedly financed their racing endeavors—they smuggled large quantities of marijuana, with the profits supporting their lavish lifestyle and racing ventures. Both Don and Bill served prison sentences for their crimes, while their brother Dale’s involvement was less publicly scrutinized.
Holland recently starred in the Apple TV+ miniseries The Crowded Room (2023) — and made a return to the stage as Romeo in Jamie Lloyd’s West End revival of Romeo and Juliet — and he will next appear in Sony’s Spider-Man 4, which is scheduled to begin filming in early 2025.
Butler was recently seen in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two as the villainous Feyd-Rautha — and in Jeff Nichols’s 1960s-set drama The Bikeriders. He will next star in Ari Aster’s Western film Eddington — and in the Darren Aronofsky crime thriller Caught Stealing.
