Boy Erased (dir./starring Joel Edgerton, w/ Lucas Hedges, Kidman, Crowe)

[Hoke Moseley]

Joel Edgerton To Direct, Lucas Hedges To Star In Gay Deprogram Drama ‘Boy Erased’



EXCLUSIVE: Multiple distributors are bidding for Boy Erased, a provocative drama Joel Edgerton has scripted and will direct based on the memoir by Garrard Conley. Edgerton will star with Manchester By The Sea‘s Lucas Hedges, and Edgerton is courting Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman for supporting roles, I’m told. Edgerton is producing with Anonymous Content’s Kerry Roberts and Steve Golin, with Tony Lipp and Kim Hodgert exec producing. Annapurna, Netflix, Amazon, Focus are the names I’m hearing for potential landing places. The film will start production in the fall.

Edgerton, who wrote and produced the 2015 sleeper hit The Gift, has adapted the 2016 Garrard memoir of his harrowing time attending Love in Action, an entity that attempts to deprogram LGBT people. The son of a Baptist pastor in a conservative small Arkansas town, Conley was outed to his parents at age 19. Conley was faced with attending a church-supported conversion therapy program that purports to “cure” homosexuality. The alternative was to risk losing his family, friends and his religion.

He entered the program, but instead of emerging from the brutal Twelve-Step Program as heterosexual, he left with the strength to embrace his true identity. The drama covers the difficulty of coming of age as a gay person in a conservative community, and the struggles that can occur when one tries to suppress that sexual identity.

Hedges, who broke out in the Oscar-nominated Manchester By The Sea, will play the protagonist, and Edgerton will play the man who runs the therapy program. Edgerton, Crowe and Kidman have long talked about doing a film together, and he wants them to play Conley’s parents. Stay tuned.

Edgerton is repped by CAA and Anonymous Content and Hedges by Paradigm and Anonymous Content.

source

Loved The Gift, so I'm interested.

[Buscemi]

Edgerton is too smart to let this go to Netflix. It would get buried there.

Though neither name is mentioned, I could see STX and Blumhouse re-teaming with Edgerton. STX had a decent result on the limited scene with Their Finest while I bet Blumhouse is looking for another Whiplash to win awards with.

Of course, the film will have difficulty getting traction outside of the big cities.

[Darth Marcus]

Source: Deadline

Focus Lands Joel Edgerton’s ‘Boy Erased’; Lucas Hedges, Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman Star
by Mike Fleming Jr
June 21, 2017 11:50am

It came down between Focus Features and Netflix in the chase to land Boy Erased, and Focus Features landed the star-cast package Deadline scooped on June 8. Focus, which recently worked closely with Edgerton on the Jeff Nichols-directed Loving, won the provocative film that Edgerton scripted and will direct based on the memoir by Garrard Conley. Edgerton will star with Manchester By The Sea‘s Lucas Hedges, and Edgerton is courting Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman for supporting roles.

Deadline covered the details of the package in depth while it was in play that is linked here, so here’s the Focus release announcing the deal today:

Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Boy Erased, the coming-of-age and coming-out drama from writer/director Joel Edgerton based on Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family by Garrard Conley. Academy Award nominee Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea) will star opposite Academy Award winners Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman. The movie will be produced by Anonymous Content and will begin production this fall for a 2018 theatrical release. Focus chairman Peter Kujawski made the announcement today.

The film will tell the story of Jared (to be portrayed by Mr. Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, who is outed to his parents (Ms. Kidman and Mr. Crowe) at age 19. Jared is quickly pressured into attending a gay conversion therapy program – or else be shunned by his family, friends, and church. It is within the program that Jared comes into conflict with its head therapist (Mr. Edgerton).

“I’m excited to work with an ensemble of actors, seasoned and new, to bring Garrard’s story to the screen. I think Focus is the perfect partner on this, and I will always thank Garrard for trusting my passion for his life story. I can’t think of a better reason to get behind the camera again,” said Mr. Edgerton.

Boy Erased is being produced by Mr. Edgerton and Anonymous Content’s Kerry Kohansky-Roberts and Steve Golin, an Academy Award-winning producer of Best Picture Oscar winner Spotlight. Executive-producing the film are Rebecca Yeldham, Ann Ruark, and Anonymous Content’s Kim Hodgert and Tony Lipp. Josh McLaughlin, recently promoted to Focus president of production, will supervise the project for the company.

Mr. Conley’s book was first published last year by Penguin Random House, and was issued earlier this year in paperback. Mr. Edgerton has written the screenplay adaptation; Boy Erased will be his second feature as director following the sleeper hit The Gift (also produced by Ms. Yeldham), which earned him a Directors Guild of America Award nomination. He was recently a Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award nominee for his performance in Focus’ Loving.

Focus Features was honored in 2012 by Point Foundation, the nation’s largest scholarship-granting organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students of merit, with its Point Inspiration Award, given to a company or organization that champions respect and inclusion of the LGBT community and operates with the vision that investing in today’s potential will produce a brighter tomorrow.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2017, Focus Features has made and released Academy Award-winning LGBT-themed films including Beginners, Dallas Buyers Club, The Danish Girl, Milk, and Brokeback Mountain, the company’s all-time top-grosser.

Mr. Kujawski commented, “Garrard’s story is both timely and timeless, both personal and universal. It is a story which will not only deeply move people, but one that we hope will change outlooks. We are thrilled to work once again with Joel, and with the Anonymous Content team. These filmmakers’ passion for this heart-rending project speaks to all of us at Focus, and to why we make the movies we do.”

[MikeScott]

This sounds fantastic. Great people behind and in front of the camera. Looking forward to it.

[1blufan]

I'm so thrilled at seeing how well Joel Edgerton's career is going. This guy has just been crushing it. I can't wait to see what his future in film brings us.

[Hoke Moseley]

Cherry Jones, Flea, and Xavier Dolan join the cast.

[Heinz-Klett]

Boy Erased has a release date in the US: September 28, 2018

http://www.focusfeatures.com/boy-erased/

[kylec123]

Two films in the same year about children being sent to conversion therapy. Interesting.

The other is "The Miseducation of Cameron Post", btw.

[Himmel]

First Look Pics

[Himmel]

http://youtu.be/-B71eyB_Onw

[Cremildo]

Wow. It looks excellent, powerful. Great cast.

[Creed]

This looks really good. Second movie this year where a character is sent to be 'fixed'.

[Foggy]

The spin-off to Lady Bird is pretty depressing.

[Cremildo]

[Hoke Moseley]

Looks great. Cast looks amazing...

[imsounoriginal]

Good cast and The Gift was very good, so I'm in. No need to watch the trailer.

[The Debts]

Given how brutal The Gift was, I can already picture this being a rough sit on the synopsis alone.

[ghostsofjoy]

I’m seeing this the first chance I get.

[MikeScott]

Looks great. Love the poster as well. Hoping I'll get to see the trailer on the big screen with Mamma Mia this weekend.

[Cremildo]

Early word from Telluride is respectful, but not enthusiastic

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First actual reviews are good