Dominick Fair-banks, the great grandson of Hollywood legend, Douglas Fairbanks, has joined the upcoming Mary Pickford film The First, as a co-producer.
Fairbanks is the grandson of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and great grandson of Douglas Fairbanks, who was Pickford's second husband, as well as one of the original owners of United Artists.
His British-based company, Fairbanks Productions, will co-produce The First, alongside the producers, Poverty Row Entertainment, the filmmakers said this week.
Fairbanks will join Poverty Row's Jennifer DeLia and Julie Pacino as they gear up for sales of the film and round out the cast.
Known as "America's Sweetheart," "Little Mary," and "The Girl with the Curls," the Canadian-born Pickford was one of silent film's biggest stars, establishing her as one of the first global idols of cinema.
The First stars Lily Rabe as Pickford, Michael Pitt as Owen Moore, and Ryan Simpkins as the young Pickford.
Roles still to be decided, include Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith, Jack Pickford (Mary's brother), Charlotte Hennessy (Mary's mother) and Lillian Gish. The producers are also finalizing a deal for a sales company to handle the film.
"I'm excited to be a part of a project so close to my heart and to bring my family's legacy to life," said Fairbanks. "Mary was so incredibly important to my great grandfather and the love of his life to the very end, and so important and such a close and very dear friend and mother to my grandfather. So in understanding what it meant to be the first and only woman at the forefront of the Hollywood movement of their time, it makes perfect sense to me that we would tell the story through her eyes.
"I love Jennifer and Julie's vision for this film."
Pickford died in 1979.
