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The film version of Portland author (and Richmond Fontaine lead) Willy Vlautin's Oregon Book Award-winning novel Lean on Pete—set in part at Portland Meadows racetrack—just got some major indie starpower behind it.
Related: WW's Excerpt of Lean on Pete
Original '90s X-Girl Chloe Sevigny, whose seeming every move spawns New Yorker and Rolling Stone profiles about how cool she still is, is joining the Portland-set picture as a racehorse rider, according to Hollywood gossip sheet Deadline.
Earlier this month, it was announced that bug-eyed '90s icon and Boardwalk Empire star Steve Buscemi would also join the picture, directed by acclaimed British indie filmmaker Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Days).
The lead role of Charlie Thompson—a working-class kid who finds his sole friend in a washed-up Portland Meadows racehorse named Lean on Pete and goes off in search of his long-lost aunt—will be played by 17-year-old Charlie Plummer, who played alongside Buscemi in Boardwalk Empire, as well as the title role in coming-of-age flick King Jack.
While the book is set in Portland, no shooting locations for the film have been announced; still, this rapid burst of casting is the largest bit of activity since May 2015, when Andrew Haigh attached himself to the project.
Lean on Pete is listed as being in pre-production on IMDB, and slated for release in 2017.
Willamette Week