Rising thesps Dakota Johnson and Nicholas Braun are set to lead Chris Nelson‘s upcoming high-school comedy “Gay Dude” with Hunter Cope and Dreama Walker (“The Sitter“) rounding out the cast.
Johnson, the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, scored a fair bit of attention as the Stanford girl who wakes up with Justin Timberlake in “The Social Network” and made a few waves after scoring roles in high-profile projects like Phil Lord and Chris Miller‘s “21 Jump Street,” Nicholas Stoller‘s “Five Year Engagement” and Christopher Neil‘s “Goats.” She’ll take on the female lead in the Alan Yang-penned (“Parks And Recreation“) story of two guys who make a pact to lose their virginity before prom, only to have one of them come out of the closet.
Co-star Braun is similarly taking Hollywood by storm, mainly thanks to Kevin Smith, who cast the up-and-comer in his upcoming horror flick “Red State” before handing him the lead of his self-proclaimed directorial finale, “Hit Somebody.” While this high-school comedy doesn’t sound like something that will take the world by storm, casting here does somewhat pique our interest with two leads that are definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Laurence Mark and David Blackman are producing for Laurence Mark Prods. alongside Jai Stefan with the film part of Lionsgate‘s planned “micro-budget” film initiative; 10 films a year with budgets under $2 million. [Variety]