The coming-of-age project will be the inaugural effort from film producer Greg Berlanti’s deal with HBO Max.
Five Feet Apart star Haley Lu Richardson and Euphoria breakout Barbie Ferreira are going on a road trip.
The two actresses have signed on to star in UNpregnant, one of the first features being made by HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service.
Greg Berlanti is producing with partner Sarah Schechter, with the project being the first movie under his HBO Max film pact and massive overall deal with Warners. Erik Feig, who recently launched PictureStart, is also producing with the company’s Lucy Kitada and Jessica Switch.
Based on the YA novel of the same name, UNpregnant is a coming-of-age story that focuses on a Missouri teen who hits the highway with a friend to obtain a legal abortion. Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan wrote the book as well as the script.
A fall shoot in New Mexico is being readied, with the plan to have the feature in the can, so to speak, for the launch of HBO Max in 2020. Rachel Lee Goldenberg is directing. Berlanti Productions’ Michael McGrath will exec produce.
“When the opportunity to produce a film based on UNpregnant arose in partnership with the incomparable Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Erik Feig, I knew HBO Max was the right place for this story,” Sarah Aubrey, head of original content, HBO Max, said Thursday in a statement. “We want to create authentic, relevant films that are told with grace and humor to serve our young adult audience, and this is exactly that.”
The 24-year-old Richardson has steadily added to her acting résumé over the past five years, working with notable directors like M. Night Shyamalan and appearing in such movies as Split, The Edge of Seventeen and Operation Finale. This year, she toplined, along with Cole Sprouse, the teen drama Five Feet Apart and shot After Yang, a sci-fi drama opposite Colin Farrell which A24 will release in 2020. Richardson is repped by Gersh, 3 Arts Entertainment and Sloane Offer.
Relative newcomer Ferreira is a model who built a major fan base on Instagram and made her acting debut on Sam Levinson’s splashy HBO series Euphoria as high schooler Kat Hernandez, breaking out alongside fellow newcomers like Hunter Schafer. She is repped by Aperture Talent Agency, Authentic Talent and Literary Management and Felker Toczek.
SOURCE THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
