The cast of Hick, the indie drama that Andrea Portes has adapted from her own novel, is starting to fill out after a few false leads. The latest news has Blake Lively and Eddie Redmayne joining up.
Chloe Moretz was the first person attached to star, and she’s playing the film’s heroine, a 13-year-old Nebraskan girl whose drunken parents simply up sticks and leave without her one day. So the plucky teenager decides to take their Smith & Wesson pistol and hitchhike to Las Vegas.
Along the way, she meets one nasty loner (Redmayne) who causes her no end of suffering, but also grifter Glenda (Lively), who takes her under her wing.
Lymelife director Derick Martini had originally planned to kick off production on the film late last year with Kirsten Dunst playing Glenda, but delays have meant that he’s had to recast.
Lively, usually found looking glam on TV’s Gossip Girl, was last seen in The Town and will be sparring with Ryan Reynolds in Green Lantern this summer. Redmayne, meanwhile, has been in the likes of The Other Boleyn Girl and Case 39, and was one of the leads in telly miniseries The Pillars of the Earth.
There’s no word on when the film will actually start shooting this time.