{"id":1506706,"date":"2026-05-14T14:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?guid=d0553bd79d609c3a5dbbe065946bc9dc"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:20:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:20:43","slug":"actor-johnny-flynn-cast-to-play-paul-simon-in-new-film-the-road-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1506706","title":{"rendered":"Actor Johnny Flynn cast to play Paul Simon in new film &#8216;The Road Home&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img src=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/05\/1a936fa61a0b09b8cbdf7085620f6795.jpg\" alt\/><figcaption>Paul Simon circa 1986 (Photo by Ebet Roberts\/Redferns)\/Johnny Flynn attends party for \"The Motive And The Cue\"  December 18, 2023. (Photo by Matt Keeble\/Dave Benett\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><p><em>Ripley<\/em> star Johnny Flynn has been cast to play Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Famer Paul Simon in the new movie <em>The Road Home<\/em>, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/05\/cynthia-erivo-the-road-home-johnny-flynn-paul-simon-cannes-1236904527\/\"  rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Deadline<\/a>.<\/p><p>The film, directed by Bill Condon, is centered around trumpeter Hugh Masekela, played by South African actor Thabo Rametsi, who toured with Simon in support of his 1986 Grammy Award-winning album,&nbsp;<em>Graceland<\/em>.<\/p><p>The film will also star Cynthia Erivo as vocalist Miriam \"Mama Africa\" Makeba, who was married to Masekela in the '60s and also toured with Simon, and Guy Pearce, who plays anti-apartheid advocate Archbishop Trevor Huddleston. Huddleston called for a boycott of Simon, claiming he violated the United Nations cultural boycott of the country by partially recording the album in Johannesburg.<\/p><p>\u201cFor me, there are very few stories that could come closer to home than this. I was born in Johannesburg and moved to London in 1985 \u2013 just before the album <em>Graceland<\/em> was released,\u201d says Flynn, also known for his work in <em>Emma<\/em> and <em>Lovesick<\/em>. \u201cThe music of South Africa \u2013 and especially that of Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba IS the sound of my childhood. And <em>Graceland<\/em> was the most played cassette in our car growing up.\u201d<\/p><p>He adds, \u201cIt\u2019s such an honour to be invited to tell this story with artists that I admire so much. It\u2019s the story of hope and the power of music.\u201d<\/p><p>Copyright \u00a9 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Simon circa 1986 (Photo by Ebet Roberts\/Redferns)\/Johnny Flynn attends party for &#8220;The Motive And The Cue&#8221;  December 18, 2023. (Photo by Matt Keeble\/Dave Benett\/Getty Images)Ripley star Johnny Flynn has been cast to play Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fam&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3112,"featured_media":1506709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/05\/1a936fa61a0b09b8cbdf7085620f6795.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1451],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1506706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-entertainment-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 02:45:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/05\/1a936fa61a0b09b8cbdf7085620f6795.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1506706"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1506710,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506706\/revisions\/1506710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1506709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1506706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1506706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1506706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}