Exciting news out of Cannes: Mike Mills (“Beginners”) has found a cast for his upcoming Annapurna Pictures’ movie “20th Century Women.” Producer Megan Ellison’s company announced today that Greta Gerwig, Annette Bening, and Elle Fanning have all joined the cast.
Mills wrote the picture and will direct. Set in Santa Barbara during the summer of 1979, “20th Century Women” tells the story of Dorothea Fields, a mother who’s trying her best to raise her teenage son, Jamie. Navigating life and love, sex and freedom, men and women isn’t easy as Dorothea looks for answers from two other remarkable women in her life. Each from a different era of the 20th Century, these three women seek to find what it means to be a man and help set Jamie on the right course. Filled with punk-rock verve, 20TH CENTURY WOMEN takes a humorous and heartfelt look at how we figure out who we are.
Bening will play iconoclastic mother Dorothea, who finds herself raising punk teenager, Jamie, alone in the chaotic world of 1979. Gerwig will play Abbie, a young sophisticated photographer submersed in the punk culture of the era who is forced to return to her home town and ends up living with Dorothea and Jamie. Fanning will pay Julie, a 16-year old smart and secretively provocative friend of Jamie’s, who challenges Dorothea’s understanding of love, learning valuable lessons about life in the process.
“These three characters are all women that I knew growing up” said Mills. “I’m thrilled to have Annette, Greta and Elle, three incredible actresses, who will bring an authenticity and vulnerability to each of these very strong, funny and complicated roles.”
Filming is set to begin later this year in Southern California. One of our most anticipated for 2016? Bet on it.