When Chloë Grace Moretz dropped out of Universal’s live-action Little Mermaid remake, she reportedly did so in order to “reassess who I am and find myself within my roles again.” Now in addition to appearing in the previously announced Suspiria remake, Moretz has also signed on to star as the lead in a gay conversion drama based on Emily M. Danforth’s coming-of-age novel, The Miseducation Of Cameron Post. The film is helmed by Desiree Akhavan, the writer, director, and star of Appropriate Behavior, and it will likely give Moretz more meaty material than playing a mute mermaid.
The book follows a recently orphaned girl named Cameron Post who is sent to live with her conservative aunt and grandmother in rural Montana. When Cameron’s intimate relationship with a female friend is outed, her aunt sends her to a conversion therapy camp designed to “cure” her homosexuality. Although the book is set in the ’90s, its plot is particularly relevant today: Vice President elect Mike Pence has previously supported conversion therapy and the official Republican Party platform nods to it as well (although there’s some disagreement there do to the broadness of the language).
The project will also star The Newsroom’s John Gallagher Jr., The Revenant’s Forrest Goodluck, and Jennifer Ehle, best known for playing Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 Pride And Prejudice miniseries. Meanwhile, American Honey star Sasha Lane has been cast as the friend Cameron makes at the conversion clinic.