Todd Solondz Plots Sort of Sequel to 'Welcome to the Dollhouse' With Greta Gerwig (Exclusive)

Julie Delpy also is in discussions to star in the movie

Almost 20 years after making his breakthrough as a filmmaker with Welcome to the Dollhouse, Todd Solondz is making a sequel.

Sort of.

Solondz is putting together a cast for Wiener-Dog, an ensemble indie that is tied together thematically by a dachshund. But one of the stories also will center on Dawn Wiener, the character mercilessly teased as "Weiner Dog" in the 1995 cult hit.

Indie starlings Julie Delpy and Greta Gerwig are in discussions to star in the movie, which Solondz had been developing quietly under the radar but now has a new leash on life: Megan Ellison and her Annapurna production shingle have come on board to produce and finance with Christine Vachon and her banner Killer Films also on board to produce.

The script tells several stories featuring people who find their life inspired or changed by one particular dachshund, who seems to be spreading comfort and joy.

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It's early days in the casting process and it's unclear the nature of Delpy's character, but if everything comes together, Gerwig would play the adult Dawn Wiener in one of the storylines.

Heather Matarazzo originally starred as an 11-and-a-half-year-old who is wildly unpopular, unattractive and unliked by even her own family and is just trying to survive life in the seventh grade. However, the actress is not returning for the new movie.

Dollhouse was part of the great wave of indie films that swept 1990s cinema. Solondz won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize after the movie's Sundance debut. Matarazzo won an Indie Spirit Award for her performance, while Solondz was nominated for best director and the film for best feature.

Delpy, who last starred in Before Midnight, is repped by CAA and Loeb & Loeb. Frances Ha star Gerwig is repped by UTA, Management 360 and Felker Toczek.

Solondz is repped by WME.