The Movie Version of Garrard Conley's 'Boy Erased' Starts Filming This Fall

Photo: Colin Boyd Shafer (via GarrardConley.com)

Pride Month has been a rollercoaster ride for LGBT film and television fans. Losing Sense8 on the literal first day of the month (after having lost The Real O'Neals and Doubt) was like getting the wind taken out of a very gay, rainbow-colored sail—but good news has finally arrived!

Boy Erased, author Garrard Conley's 2016 memoir revolving around coming-of-age in a religious family and being sent to a conversion-therapy program, made waves last year for its depiction of triumph in the face of persecution. The courageous story has been scripted for film by Joel Edgerton (The Gift, The Rover) and is currently being bid on by several distributors including Annapurna Pictures, Netflix, Amazon, and Focus Features, Deadline reports.

Lucas Hedges, who played Oscar-nominated Manchester By the Sea's distraught teen Patrick, will star as the film's young protagonist (we don't have names yet, so he might not be named Garrard) and Edgerton will co-star as the conversion-therapy camp manager. Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe are reportedly being courted to play Hedges' character's parents, who send him to the camp after he's outed to them at 19.

(The claps for a potentially star-studded cast, not conversion therapy or outing anyone...)

Congratulations to Conley, Riverhead Books, and all those involved in bringing his story to light. We look forward to seeing Boy Erased on the big screen!

h/t: Deadline