Joel Edgerton to direct gay deprogram drama ‘Boy Erased’

Los Angeles, Jun 10 (PTI) Actor-filmmaker Joel Edgerton is set to direct and co-star in a provocative drama "Boy Erased" along with Lucas Hedges.

Edgerton, 42, has adapted the 2016 Garrard Conley memoir of his harrowing time attending Love in Action, an entity that attempts to deprogram LGBT people. The son of a Baptist pastor in a conservative small Arkansas town, Conley was outed to his parents at age 19. He was faced with attending a church- supported conversion therapy program that purports to "cure" homosexuality, reported Deadline.

Hedges, who was recently seen in the Oscar-nominated "Manchester By The Sea", will be seen in the lead role, while Edgerton will play the man who runs the therapy program.

Edgerton is also producing with Anonymous Content's Kerry Roberts and Steve Golin. Tony Lipp, Kim Hodgert Rebecca Yeldham and Ann Ruark are the exec producers.

Production on the film will begin in the fall.