It has just been announced by Deadline that the new sports film 12 Mighty Orphans will star Alice Eve, known from Star Trek: Into Darkness and the upcoming Bombshell film, and Luke Wilson, star of Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums, and, most recently, The Goldfinch and Zombieland: Double Tap. The film is based on a nonfiction novel of the same name by Jim Dent about a group of orphans from Fort Worth, Texas who form a football team in the middle of the Great Depression, eventually competing at the state championship.
Luke Wilson will play Coach Rusty Russell, married to Juanita Russell (Eve), who helps a group of scrawny young orphans reach their maximum potential and defy all odds against teams much bigger than them. It’s due to the boys’ hard work and Rusty’s innovative nature that the boys are able to find success after overcoming so much.
Production will begin within the next month in various parts of North Texas, with the majority being filmed in Fort Worth, Texas. Fort Worth native Michael De Luca, producer of Magic Mike and Fifty Shades of Grey, will produce alongside Houston Hill, Angelique De Luca, and Brinton Bryan. Ty Roberts is set to direct from a screenplay written by himself and Lane Garrison.