Desiree Akhavan (center right) and cast. (Photo: Elizabeth Flock)
Looks like the next project from Brooklyn filmmaker Desiree Akhavan will be a timely one. She’s adapting Emily M. Danforth’s novel, The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Chloë Grace Moretz will play the lead, a 12-year-old girl whose aunt sends her to a conversion-therapy camp after she’s caught in a lesbian encounter. Seems like something our new vice president might want to grab some popcorn and watch.
According to a press release, Sasha Lane (American Honey) will play a friend at the clinic and John Gallagher Jr. (Short Term 12), Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant), and Jennifer Ehle (A Quiet Passion), will also star.
Akhavan, who will direct the film, adapted the screenplay with Cecilia Frugiuele, producer of Akhavan’s debut effort, Appropriate Behavior. That was also a lesbian coming-of-age film, though it was set in Williamsburg and not Montana, and the lead character, played by Akhavan, was a bit older. After we spoke to Akhavan at Sundance, she went on to guest-star on Girls, as one of Hannah’s classmates at the Iowa Writers Workshop. According to the press release, she’s also creating a comedy series commissioned by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.