Emmy and Tony Award winner Cherry Jones (“Transparent”, “24”)and Grammy Award winner Michael “Flea” Balzary, from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, join the cast ofBoy Erased, the coming-of-age and coming-out drama from writer/director Joel Edgerton based onBoy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family by Garrard Conley, who serves as a consultant on the film. In addition to Jones and Flea, also joining the cast are Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother), singer/songwriter and YouTube personality Troye Sivan, as well as Emily Hinkler (Tyler Perry’s Boo 2), Jesse LaTourette (Z Nation), David Joseph Craig (The Gift), Théodore Pellerin (It’s Only the End of the World), and Britton Sear (Unfinished Business, HBO’s “Vice Principals”). They join the already announced cast led by Academy Award nominee Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea), Academy Award winners Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, and Joel Edgerton. 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 (Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, who is outed to his parents (Kidman and Crowe) at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith. Boy Erased is the true story of one young man’s struggle to find himself while being forced to question every aspect of his identity.
Commented Joel Edgerton, “The Boy Erased cast is rounding out in a way I could only dream of. We have gathered an incredible ensemble of actors.”
Boy Erased is being produced by 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, Focus president of production, will supervise the project for the company.
Conley is helping to ensure the film is an accurate adaption of his memoir, which was first published last year by Penguin Random House, and was issued earlier this year in paperback. Edgerton has written the screenplay adaptation; Boy Erased will be his second feature as director following the sleeper hit The Gift (also produced by 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.
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, andBrokeback Mountain, the company’s all-time top-grosser.
About Focus Features
Focus Features (www.focusfeatures.com) acquires and produces specialty films for the global market, and holds a library of iconic movies from fearless filmmakers. Current and upcoming domestic releases from Focus include the real-life story of heroism The Zookeeper’s Wife, directed by Niki Caro and starring Jessica Chastain; Colin Trevorrow’s The Book of Henry, starring Naomi Watts, Jaeden Lieberher, and Jacob Tremblay; Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled, winner of the Best Director award at the 2017 Cannes International Film Festival; the breakneck action thriller Atomic Blonde, directed by David Leitch and starring Charlize Theron and James McAvoy; Victoria & Abdul, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Judi Dench as Queen Victoria; Darkest Hour, directed by Joe Wright and starring Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill; the untitled Entebbe project, a gripping political thriller directed by José Padilha and starring Rosamund Pike and Daniel Brühl; Jason Reitman’s new comedy Tully, starring Charlize Theron and written by Diablo Cody; and the untitled new film from Paul Thomas Anderson starring Daniel Day-Lewis.
Focus Features is part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.
About Anonymous Content
Founded in 1999 by CEO Steve Golin, Anonymous Content is a leading management and Film, TV and Commercial production company. Anonymous Content manages the careers of many of the world’s most renowned and innovative directors, writers, actors and comedians, working closely with them to achieve their goals by both creating and finding opportunities for them, whether in feature films, television, commercials, music videos or brand integrated content. Anonymous Content’s clients have been recognized with Academy Awards®, Emmys®, Golden Globes®, Tony Awards®, Pulitzer Prizes® and other prestigious awards. The company’s award-winning Film & TV division boasts many commercially successful and critically-acclaimed works, including BABEL, WINTER’S BONE, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, 50 FIRST DATES, COLLATERAL BEAUTY, THE REVENANT and Best Picture Academy Award winning SPOTLIGHT. The company’s TV slate includes “True Detective” (HBO), “The Knick” (Cinemax), “Mr. Robot” (USA Network), “Schitt’s Creek” (POP), and “Berlin Station” (EPIX), “13 Reasons Why” (Netflix), as well as upcoming titles “The Alienist” (TNT), and “Maniac” (Netflix). Through its Commercial work, Anonymous Content is also the driving creative force behind countless top brands, including Prada, Nike and Coke. In 2016, Anonymous Content received a substantial minority investment from Emerson Collective, the organization founded and run by Laurene Powell Jobs, to allow the firm to expand its production offerings in socially-relevant content aimed at inspiring change. For more information, visit www.anonymouscontent.com.
