If there’s one filmmaker we’re happy to see suddenly getting much busier, it’s “Appropriate Behavior” director Desiree Akhavan. It was just a couple of weeks back that she lined up gay conversion drama “The Miseducation Of Cameron Post” starring Chloe Moretz and “American Honey” breakout star Sasha Lane. And now Akhavan is prepping to roll cameras next spring on another movie, also centering on some very timely issues.
Deadline reports that Akhavan will helm the simply titled “Adam.” Based on the novel by Ariel Schrag, who also penned the screenplay, the story will tell the coming-of-age story of the titular character, who falls into the lesbian and trans activist community, and wrestles with the complications of a new romance. Here’s the book synopsis:
When Adam Freedman — a skinny, awkward, inexperienced teenager from Piedmont, California — goes to stay with his older sister Casey in New York City, he is hopeful that his life is about to change. And it sure does.
It is the summer of 2006. Gay marriage and transgender rights are in the air, and Casey has thrust herself into a wild lesbian subculture. Soon Adam is tagging along to underground clubs, where there are hot older women everywhere he turns. It takes some time for him to realize that many in this new crowd assume he is trans — a boy who was born a girl. Why else would this baby-faced guy always be around?
Then Adam meets Gillian, the girl of his dreams — but she couldn’t possibly be interested in him. Unless passing as a trans guy might actually work in his favor…
Sounds like it’ll walk a tricky tightrope of identity drama, love story, and comedy, but Akhavan is a pretty great choice to toe that line. No word yet on casting, but lensing begins in 2017.