12 Mighty Orphans adds Robert Duvall & Martin Sheen
Deadline has brought word that the upcoming football drama 12 Mighty Orphans is setting up a reunion of apocalyptic proportions as Apocalypse Now stars Robert Duvall and Martin Sheen have signed on to join Luke Wilson (Zombieland: Double Tap).
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Wilson will play the team’s coach, Rusty Russell, a WWI veteran who arrives with a troubled past, much of which is due to being abandoned in an orphanage when he was a child. Looking for a way to turn his life around, he accepts a job as head coach for a Texas orphanage football team and helps redirect his players’ feelings of loss into a powerful team that ultimately ended up in the Texas state championship.
In addition to Wilson, the film is also set to star Ray Donovan alum Vinessa Shaw as Juanita Russell, Rusty’s wife, and Wayne Knight (Seinfeld) as Frank Wynn, a man who runs the day-to-day operations of the orphanage but hides a darker nature behind his politician’s demeanor.
Sheen has signed on to star as Doc Hall, a country doctor who has served the orphans for over 30 years without ever taking a paycheck and who was responsible for bringing Rusty to the orphanage, becoming the assistant coach to the football team. Duvall is set to star as Mason Hawk, a wise free mason and an orphan himself who instills wisdom in the Mighty Mites on what it means to be an orphan.
Roberts served double duty as screenwriter alongside Lane Garrison.
Mike De Luca will produce the film alongside Houston Hill, Angelique De Luca, and Brinton Bryan. George Young Jr., Rhett Bennett, Greg McCabe and J. Todd Harris will be executive producers. Production starts this fall in Fort Worth, Texas.
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Wilson has wrapped the John Crowley-directed The Goldfinch in which he stars opposite Ansel Elgort, and can also be seen in the upcoming comedy Zombieland 2. He is currently filming the Geoff John-directed Stargirl for DC.
(Photo Credit: Backgrid Images)
