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Orange Is the New Black star joins Joey King in new Netflix movie

Photo credit: Emma McIntyre /AMA2020 - Getty Images
Photo credit: Emma McIntyre /AMA2020 - Getty Images

Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox is set to appear in the dystopian fantasy movie Uglies for Netflix.

The two-time SAG Award winner will appear in an unnamed role in the upcoming adaptation of Scott Westerfeld's internationally bestselling series of the same name, alongside The Kissing Booth's Joey King.

Uglies is set in a world in which a compulsory operation at 16 makes everyone pretty by conforming to an ideal standard of beauty, with King on board to play lead character Tally Youngblood, according to Deadline.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

Outer Banks star Chase Stokes, Scream's Brianne Tju and Straight Outta Compton's Keith Powers have also all been announced to be joining the adaptation.

Grey's Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff is in charge of adapting the screenplay and McG, who helmed Charlie's Angels and The Duff is in the director's chair.

Cox, who starred as Sophia Burset on the hit Netflix series for seven seasons, also recently played Gail in the black comedy thriller Promising Young Woman.

However, it came to light earlier this year that a male voice actor – Roberto Pedicini – was used to dub Cox's voice in the Italian-language version of the movie.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

Related: Why was Orange is the New Black cancelled by Netflix?

In a statement, Universal Pictures International said: "We are deeply grateful to Laverne and the transgender community for opening our eyes to a bias that neither we nor many in our industry had recognised.

"While there was no malicious intent behind this mistake, we are working diligently to fix it. We have begun re-dubbing Ms Cox's voice with female actors in our international territories and are pushing back release dates to ensure the correct version is available.

"We are sorry for the pain caused but are thankful that we can address the situation on this film and prevent similar mistakes from happening again on future projects."

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