EXCLUSIVE: Taylor Kitsch will make his feature directorial debut and will star in Pieces, a drama that he also wrote. This puts Kitsch back together with Lone Survivor cohorts Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films’ Randall Emmett and George Furla, and Peter Berg and his Film44. E/F/O will finance the film, and Emmett and Furla will produce with Berg and Kitsch. Kitsch will play the lead role in the story of about three best friends from Detroit who change the course of their lives by intercepting a drug run.

Berg and Kitsch have a relationship that goes back to the long-running Friday Night Lights series. Kitsch played the team’s troubled fullback Tim Riggins, and it’s good to see him on a winning track after a rough transition to feature leading man with John Carter and Battleship. Berg helped him put one in the win column on Lone Survivor, in which Kitsch played Navy SEAL Michael Murphy, a legend where I live on Long Island for his bravery and fitness fanaticism. He also starred in the Emmy-winning The Normal Heart and most recently in the second season of HBO’s True Detective. Tim Sullivan and Tony Callie will be co-producers on Pieces, which will shoot this summer in Texas.

Emmett/Furla is currently in post on the Martin Scorsese-directed Silence, and just wrapped the Elliott Lester-directed Arnold Schwarzenegger-Scoot McNairy starrer 478, with Darren Aronofsky producing, and the Steven C. Miller-directed Bruce Willis starrer Marauders. Next up is the Michael Polish-directed adaptation of David Mamet’s Speed-The-Plow with Irwin Winkler producing.

Kitsch is repped by CAA and Untitled.