Susan Sarandon and Richard Dreyfuss have signed on to join Edward Norton in Leaves of Grass, a comedic thriller actor-turned-filmmaker Tim Blake Nelson wrote and is directing.
Nu Image/Millennium Film has come aboard to produce and finance the picture, which also sees Keri Russell in negotiations to come on board as well.
Norton is portraying twin brothers, one an Ivy League philosophy professor, the other a small-time and brilliant marijuana grower. The professor is lured back to his Oklahoma hometown for a doomed scheme against a local drug lord (Dreyfuss) that unravels his life.
Sarandon plays the brothers’ eccentric mother, while Russell will play a love interest.
Nelson is playing a best friend to one of the brothers. Lucy DeVito, the daughter of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman, and country singer Steve Earle are also in the cast.
Norton and Nelson are producing with John Langley, Elie Cohn, Kristina Dubin and Bill Migliore. Executive producing are Danny Dimbort, Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson, Stuart Blumberg and Eric Gitter.
Shooting is scheduled to begin Sept. 22 in Shreveport, Louisiana. The budget will be between $9.5 million and $14 million.
