Ball
Alan Ball has set the cast and financing for his long-awaited feature directing debut. The untitled drama will star Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette and Maria Bello. Steven M. Rales will finance.
Ball is using as inspiration the Alicia Erian novel "Towelhead," which he optioned in galley form in 2004 with his own cash. Ball wrote the script while presiding over his HBO series "Six Feet Under," of which he helmed six episodes.
Ted Hope is producing with Rales and Ball. Scott Rudin, Peggy Rajski and Hope's This Is That partner Anne Carey are exec producers.
The film tells the story of Jasira, who struggles with identity and sexual issues as the daughter of a Lebanese-American father and an American mother in Texas during the Gulf War.
Newcomer Summer Bishil has been cast to play the young girl and "Six Feet Under" regular Peter Macdissi will play a father trying to instill traditional Middle Eastern values in his daughter.
Shooting begins mid-September in L.A.
"To me, it's a story of personal courage, claiming responsibility to be who you are at a very early age and without proper role models to guide you," Ball said.
While Rales provided the financing, UTA will set a domestic distributor as Celluloid Dreams serves as international sales agent.
"Alan is dealing with ... topics that are taboo, but every detail is so well-observed, every moment is so nuanced and every single character treated with such compassion that taboos are transcended," said Celluloid president Hengameh Panahi.
Eckhart, last seen in "Thank You for Smoking," has been filming the indie drama "Bill" and next will be seen in "Conversations With Other Women" and "The Black Dahlia." He recently starred in an untitled adaptation of the 2001 German pic "Mostly Martha" for Warner Bros.
Collette stars in "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Night Listener."
Bello opens Friday in "World Trade Center" and follows with "Flicka" and "Bufferfly on a Wheel."
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