Stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ron Perlman have joined the cast of Roland Emmerich’s latest, Stonewall. The two Hollywood heavyweights add a significant dose of star power to a mostly unknown group of young up-and-comers, including War Horse‘s Jeremy Irvine.

Stonewall centers on the story of a young man, played by Irvine, who comes of age during the time of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, which are widely considered as the catalyst for the modern day LGBT movement. The cast also includes Karl Glusman, Andrea Frankie, and X-Men: First Class‘s Caleb Landry Jones.

While the exact plot of Stonewall is still unknown, the film is an unusual choice for Emmerich, who is widely known as a hit or miss, large-scale, over-the-top cheesy cornball disaster picture director. His most recent film, 2013’s White House Down, starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Fox, and an under siege White House was a huge flop (not helped by the fact that it bowed mere months after Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, and Morgan Freeman starred in the similarly premised Olympus Has Fallen). On the other hand, Emmerich has the occasional massive success such as 2009’s end-of-the-world movie 2012, which took in more than $700 Million worldwide. His film Anonymous (2011) seemed like a first attempt to scale back to a more intimate character drama – albeit one that still tipped the scales at around a $30 million budget – but seeing Emmerich dip into that realm a little more fully is something we’d be interested in, at any rate.

Stonewall is expected to begin filming shortly in Montreal.

Rhys Meyers is also set to star in Jim Sheridan’s The Secret Scripture. Perlman is currently filming Antoine Bardou-Jacquet’s comedy Moonwalkers.