One Thousand and One Nights

Production Company
Throughline Film Foundation
Producer(s)
Sebastian Belmont
Director(s)
Sebastian Belmont
Casting Director(s): 
Anglica Lockyer
Union Status
Non-Union
Project Type
Television
Student Production
No
Compensation Details

Paid non-union. Rates are calculated by role size, call length, and production requirements using a structured screen-production rate framework. Final rates will be confirmed in writing before booking.

Audition Date(s)
Mid 2027
Audition Location
TBD - All Auditions will be in person.
Shoot / Performance Date(s)
mid 2027
Shoot / Performance Location(s)
Vancouver
Submission Deadline
Friday, June 19, 2026
Submission Instructions

Info@throughlinefilmfoundation.com
Please include:
Headshot
Resume
Demo reel or recent self-tape sample
Role(s) you would like to be considered for
Confirmation that you are non-union
Any relevant language, dialect, classical text, movement, theatre, or cultural experience

Project Synopsis
This pilot is a text-led screen adaptation of the opening frame story of One Thousand and One Nights. The story begins with King Shahryar, a ruler who has been changed by betrayal, humiliation, and unchecked power. His grief has turned outward onto the kingdom, creating a court ruled by fear. Families are afraid, officials are compromised, and the palace has become a place where no one can speak honestly without risking their life. At the centre of the pilot is Shahrazad, the vizier’s daughter. She is educated, composed, and fully aware of the danger she is walking into. She chooses to enter the palace not as a passive victim, but with a precise plan: to begin a story, hold the king’s attention, and stop before the ending so that he must let her live until the next night. The pilot focuses on the beginning of this ritual: the pressure inside the court, the fear surrounding Shahryar, the moral conflict of the vizier, the bond between Shahrazad and her sister Dunyazad, and the first night where storytelling becomes a matter of survival. This is not being approached as a loose fantasy version, parody, or modern retelling. The goal is a direct text-to-film transfer grounded in the early Arabic textual tradition of the Nights, with attention to the language, structure, cultural setting, and historical weight of the material. The production is being developed with Arabic language support, cultural consultation, and scholarly/textual guidance so the work can be handled with seriousness and respect. The tone is dramatic, intimate, and psychologically grounded. We are looking for performers who can work with restraint, tension, courtly atmosphere, and emotionally difficult material. The story deals with power, betrayal, gendered violence, grief, fear, intelligence, and the use of storytelling under extreme pressure
Additional Information & Safety Protocols: 

This is a non-union production. We are only considering non-union performers for this project.

The material deals with mature themes, including betrayal, coercive power, fear, execution, gendered violence, grief, and survival. The production will not treat these subjects casually or sensationally.

Any sensitive material, physical contact, staged violence, or emotionally difficult scene work will be discussed clearly with performers before filming. No actor will be asked to perform intimate, violent, or unsafe action that has not been agreed to in advance.

Where needed, scenes will be handled with closed-set practices, clear boundaries, and direct communication between the performer, director, and relevant department heads. Performers will be given space to ask questions and raise concerns.

The production is also working with Arabic language, cultural, and scholarly/textual support to help ground the adaptation in the source material and approach the cultural context with care.

Meals and water will be provided where applicable. Final call times, locations, role details, and compensation will be confirmed in writing before booking.

Actors, crew, and artists interested in future Throughline Film Foundation opportunities are also encouraged to sign up for our newsletter at: https://throughlinefilmfoundation.org/
We share future casting notices and project opportunities through our newsletter so artists can access opportunities through open channels, without relying only on paid casting platforms or closed industry networks.

Character 1
SHAHRAZAD / SCHEHERAZADE
Age
19-25
Gender
Female
Description
The vizier’s daughter. Highly intelligent, educated, composed, and brave. Shahrazad understands language, timing, power, and danger. She chooses to enter the palace with a plan to tell the king a story and survive one more night. This role requires emotional depth, restraint, intelligence, and the ability to carry heightened dramatic text.
Character 2
DUNYAZAD
Age
19-20's
Gender
Female
Description
Shahrazad’s younger sister. She is central to the first night and the beginning of the storytelling ritual. She must be emotionally present, alert, and deeply connected to Shahrazad. This role requires vulnerability, trust, and quiet strength.
Character 3
KING SHAHRYAR
Age
30s–50s
Gender
Male
Description
A ruler changed by betrayal, grief, humiliation, and unchecked power. He is dangerous, wounded, and feared by the kingdom. This role requires authority, stillness, emotional complexity, and the ability to play violence and grief without reducing the character to a simple villain.
Character 4
THE VIZIER
Age
40s–70s
Gender
Male
Description
Shahrazad and Dunyazad’s father. A court official caught between obedience to the king and horror at what is happening in the kingdom. He is a parent, a servant of the state, and a man under enormous moral pressure. This role requires gravity, restraint, and emotional weight.
Character 5
SHAH ZAMAN
Age
30s–50s
Gender
Male
Description
The king’s brother. His part in the opening crisis helps set the story in motion. This role requires seriousness, dignity, and the ability to carry shame, shock, and grief.
Additional Characters

SHAH ZAMAN’S WIFE
Woman, 20s–40s. The wife of Shah Zaman. Her betrayal is the first rupture in the story and sets the emotional chain of events in motion. Requires subtlety, tension, and the ability to play a key moment without turning the character into a stereotype.

PALACE ATTENDANTS / COURT WOMEN / SERVANTS / GUARDS
All genders, 18+. These roles help build the world of the palace and the court. Some may be involved in formal court scenes, silent dramatic moments, movement-based staging, or scenes showing the fear spreading through the kingdom.

THE IFRIT / JINN
Man or masculine-presenting, 30s–60s. A powerful supernatural being encountered by the two kings during their journey. This role requires physical presence, stillness, threat, and possibly strong movement or voice work. The character should feel ancient, dangerous, and larger than ordinary human power.

THE WOMAN IN THE CHEST
Woman, 20s–40s. A woman held captive by the Ifrit/Jinn. Her scene is one of the most unsettling moments in the opening frame story and is central to the brothers’ distorted view of trust, power, and women. This role requires confidence, emotional complexity, and comfort with mature material. The scene will be handled carefully, without nudity or explicit content unless clearly discussed and agreed in advance.

SHAHRYAR’S QUEEN / ROYAL WIFE
Woman, 20s–40s. The wife of King Shahryar. Her betrayal is part of the crisis that begins the king’s collapse into violence. This role must be handled seriously and without caricature. Requires presence, confidence, and comfort with tense dramatic material.

MAS’UD / COURT LOVER
Man, 20s–40s. A figure connected to the palace betrayal in Shahryar’s court. This role should be cast and written with care, especially because some older translations present this material through racialized and exoticized language. Our production will approach the role through the source text while avoiding caricature or harmful visual shorthand.

YOUNG WOMEN OF THE KINGDOM / FAMILIES OF THE KINGDOM
Women and all genders, 18+. These roles represent the human cost of Shahryar’s rule and the fear created by his nightly marriages. These parts may be non-speaking but emotionally important.