Cast Details for Film Adaptation of Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell

Variety is reporting Andrew Garfield, Jennifer Garner and Marcia Gay Harden have been cast in a film adaptation of the noir-ish suspense novel Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell. Adrian Lyne will direct a screenplay he co-wrote with O'Dell. Filming is expected to begin in June.

In the book, Harley Altmyer (Andrew Garfield) should be in college drinking Rolling Rock and chasing girls. He should be freed from his closed-minded, stricken coal town, with its lack of jobs and no sense of humor. Instead, he's constantly reminded of just how messed up his life is.

With his mother in jail for killing his abusive father, Harley is an orphan with the responsibilities of an adult and the fiery, aggressive libido of a teenager. Just nineteen years old, he's marooned in the Pennsylvania backwoods caring for his three younger sisters, whose feelings about him range from stifling dependence to loathing. And once he develops an obsession with the sexy, melancholic mother of two living down the road, those Victoria's Secret catalogs just won't do the trick anymore. He wants Callie Mercer (Jennifer Garner) so badly he fears he will explode. But it's the family secrets, the lies, and the unspoken truths that light the fuse and erupt into a series of staggering surprises, leaving what's left of his family in tatters.

Marcia Gay Harden plays the role of a court-appointed psychotherapist Harley is required to visit.

You can read the first chapter(s) of Back Roads below. Use the Aa settings button to adjust text size, line spacing, and word density.