EXCLUSIVE: Milo Gibson — the son of Mel Gibson — and Laurence Fishburne have signed on to star in the sports drama Brother’s Keeper for Winter State Entertainment, an upstart production company out of Minnesota started by husbannd/wife indie film producing team of Hamid and Camille Torabpour.

Brother’s Keeper is described as an inspirational sports drama that follows the true story of West Texas’ 2009 Abilene High School football team — underdogs who rallied against odds to win their state championship and is said to be in the vein of Friday Night Lights. Production is underway, and the film is expected to wrap in November with its football scenes staged at Shotwell Stadium in Abilene, TX.

Directed by Todd Randall and adapted from the book by Al Pickett and Chad Mitchell, Brother’s Keeper is being produced by the Torabpours and Dr. Mark Smith.

Several major distributors are in talks with Winter State, with an eye toward a wide theatrical release in 2019.

Milo Gibson made his feature debut in his father’s Oscar-nominated feature Hacksaw Ridge, and also stars in Peter Facinelli’s directorial debut Breaking & Exiting, which opened Friday. Upcoming credits also include Rod Lurie’s The Outpost (now in pre-production) and David Blair’s World War II drama Hurricane (to release in September). Gibson’s other credits include Gangster Land and The Tribes of Palos Verdes opposite Jennifer Garner. He is repped by Paradigm and Alchemy Entertainment.

Fishburne, probably best known for playing Morpheus in The Matrix trilogy, Jason “Furious” Styles in Boyz N the Hood and Tyrone “Mr. Clean” Miller in Francis Ford Coppola’s classic Apocalypse Now, also is notable for a number of other roles. He became the first African American to portray Othello in a major-studio motion picture when he appeared in Oliver Parker’s 1995 film adaptation of the Shakespeare play. Fishburne also played Bill Foster/Goliath in superhero sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp, released this year as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is repped by Paradigm, Landmark Artists Management and Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano.