Actor-director Joel Edgerton is busy putting plans into place for his next project, Boy Erased.

The drama is based on a memoir of a young gay man, Garrard Conley, who underwent so-called gay conversion therapy.

Deadline reports that Lucas Hedges, last seen in the Oscar-winning Manchester By The Sea, will take the lead role in the movie.

It also says Edgerton is courting fellow Australians Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman to take supporting roles.

Boy Erased

2016 memoir Boy Erased recounts Conley’s childhood in a fundamentalist Arkansas family and how he was persuaded to take part in a gay conversion program.

The son of a Baptist pastor, he was warned that he would lose his family unless he agreed, aged 19, to attend the conversion therapy camp

Such practices have been widely discounted by psychotherapy organizations and outlawed in several US states, including California, Oregon and District of Columbia.

Australian-born Edgerton is best known for his roles in movies such as Animal Kingdom, Black Mass, Warriors and The great Gatsby. He made his directorial debut with The Gift in 2015 and has penned the screenplay for Boy Erased.

Edgerton plans to play the role of the man running the conversion camp, and its thought that he wants Crowe and Kidman to play the son’s parents.

Lucas Hedges, 21, has appeared in Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role opposite Casey Affleck in 2016’s Manchester By The Sea (pictured above).

Main image: Nicole Kidman by Eva Rinaldi Photography licensed via CreativeCommons2.0

H/T: Deadline