EXCLUSIVE: Grace Van Patten and Jovan Adepo are set to star in writer-director Kerem Sanga’s drama The Violent Heart. 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen are producing the film with Ed McDonnell, Tobey Maguire’s Material Pictures and 3311. Material and 3311 are financing. Production is set to begin February in Austin, Texas.

Pic is a coming-of-age romance set just outside Ft. Hood, Texas, about a college-bound senior on the cusp of graduation, and her budding relationship with a local mechanic named Daniel (Adepo), who himself dreams of becoming a Marine. As they fall for one another, the details surrounding Daniel’s tragic and violent past inevitably catch up with them.

Van Patten recently finished Under The Silver Lake opposite Andrew Garfield and co-stars in the Noah Baumbach-directed The Meyerowitz Stories. Adepo recently wrapped production for Paramount & Bad Robot’s WW2 thriller Overlord and he had a breakout performance in the Denzel Washington-directed Fences and did two seasons on HBO’s The Leftovers.

This is Sanga’s third film. his last, First Girl I Loved, won the Next Award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

21 Laps is coming off Stranger Things 2 and has the Netflix pic Kodachrome, the Lionsgate sci-fi thriller Kin and The Darkest Minds at Fox, all releasing next year. 3311 Productions’ did Brigsby Bear and Table 19, and has upcoming the Chad Hartigan-directed The Fifth Official and Gerard Johnstone-directed Sympathy For The Devil.

Endeavor Content brokered the deal.

Sanga is repped by APA, Madhouse and Behr Abramson; WME and Brookside Artist Management represents Van Patten; Gersh and Powerline Entertainment represents Adepo; WME and Ziffren Brittenham rep 21 Laps; and WME, Management 360 and attorney Barry Littman rep Material.