Lead roles have been cast in Adrian Lyne‘s adaptation of Tawni O’Dell‘s “Back Roads,” a novel about a young man in rural Pennsylvania trying to care for his three younger sisters after his mother goes to jail. Andrew Garfield is attached to play the lead role of Harley with Jennifer Garner and Marcia Gay Harden in supporting roles. Garner will play a neighbor and love interest for Garfield, with Harden taking on the role of court-appointed therapist to Garfield. Lyne co-wrote the screenplay with O’Dell and is all set to turn the Oprah’s Book Club novel into a film for Infinity Media. Many young actresses are being considered to play Garfield’s sisters; in the book, the girls are 15, 12 and 6. Hailee Steinfeld and Elle Fanning, anyone?
Garfield is coming off of a stellar year after his supporting role in “The Social Network” and an excellent lead in the underrated “Never Let Me Go.” He’ll be seen next in Marc Webb‘s new adaptation of “Spider-Man,” so it will be good to see him take on a dramatic role after the comic book tentpole. Garner has a few projects coming up before “Back Roads,” including “Butter,” the remake of “Arthur” and “The Odd Life of Timothy Green.” Needless to say, she’s adding on another seemingly great project with this one. For Harden, this is a pretty high-profile film, as she’s been keeping to smaller indies as of late.
Lyne hasn’t made a film since 2002’s “Unfaithful,” but hopefully he’s just been waiting for the right project to come along. The film is being produced by Michael Ohoven (“Capote“) and Dan Spilo, with Kevin Turen as executive producer. Production is tentatively scheduled to start this June. [Variety]
Never Let Me Go got mediocre reviews, it wasn\’t nything special; the book is great though