Dakota Fanning (Very Good Girls) and Helen Hunt (What Women Want) have been cast to star in the indie drama Please Stand By, according to Screen Daily. The film is to be directed by Hunt’s The Sessions collaborator Ben Lewin with a script written by Michael Golamco (TV’s Grimm).
The story follows a young, bright autistic woman named Wendy (Fanning). In the hopes of delivering her screenplay to a competition in Hollywood, Wendy sneaks away from her care home and is pursued by one of the facility’s caregivers, Scottie (Hunt).
With the film being produced by Mark Cuban’s 2929 Productions and Embankment Films handling international sales, the indie drama will be going to Cannes this month to seek distributors.
Hunt is still in the midst of a press tour for Ride, her second triple threat film for which she has acted as director, screenwriter, and lead actress. She will next appear with Armie Hammer (The Social Network) in Serpent Girl, based on the Michael Carnahan novel.
Fanning, who as of late has left behind the big studio films of her early career (War of the Worlds, the Twilight saga) for indie productions (Night Moves, Every Secret Thing), will continue the streak with Please Stand By. She has two other projects coming up within the year including Franny with Theo James, and Viena and the Fantomes with Zoe Kravitz.
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