Marianne Rendon replaces Zosia Mamet as Patti Smith in Mapplethorpe

Acting newcomer Marianne Rendon has been drafted in to replace Zosia Mamet as rocker Patti Smith in a new film.
The Girls star had initially been tapped to feature as Smith opposite former Doctor Who actor Matt Smith as iconic photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, but a scheduling conflict prompted Mamet to drop out.
According to IndieWire, Imposters actress Rendon has since been cast as the punk star, Mapplethorpe’s lover/confidante, just a week before production is slated to begin.
The biopic, titled Mapplethorpe, will be directed by Ondi Timoner, the filmmaker behind Russell Brand’s 2015 documentary Brand: A Second Coming, and she is confident Rendon will shine as her leading lady.
“When I saw Marianne for the first time, I knew we’d finally found our Patti,” Timoner told IndieWire. “She has a spunky, open energy and a spark that gives Robert what he needs to explore the world and himself, for the first time…
“Marianne has such charisma and versatility, I am convinced we are introducing a talent to the world of cinema and this is only the beginning.”
She added of Smith, “(He) has a quiet dark power that captured Mapplethorpe from the moment I saw him. We read hundreds of people for this iconic role, and his performance was jaw-dropping. He has the gravitas that the singularly focused artist himself possessed, which allowed him to turn the unholy holy and even transform the way we viewed photography as fine art.”
However, it’s been revealed 70-year-old Smith, who chronicled her relationship with Mapplethorpe in her 2010 memoir Just Kids, will not be involved in any aspect of the new film. Her representative confirmed the singer opted not to have a hand in the biopic, but did not offer a reason why.
In contrast, officials at the photographer’s Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, which he founded a year before his death from AIDS in 1989, have offered their support to the film.
“The Mapplethorpe Foundation was impressed by Ondi Timoner’s vision for the project and her strengths as an artist,” Michael Ward Stout, president of the foundation, wrote in a statement. “We’re very pleased she has chosen to tell Robert’s story.”