EXCLUSIVE: Luke Wilson has been set to star in 12 Mighty Orphans, the Ty Roberts-directed drama adapted from the Jim Dent novel based on the true story of a group of Fort Worth orphans who vie for the state championship and rally a broken nation at the height of the Great Depression.

Wilson will play Coach Rusty Russell, a WWI vet with a troubled past he can trace to his mother leaving him in an orphanage when he was a child. Looking for redemption by trying to turn around the fortune of other orphans, he accepts a job as the head football coach to a Texas orphanage/high school. Through dedication, redirects his players’ feelings of loss and humiliation into a dominant team that played in the Texas state championship. Roberts wrote the script with Lane Garrison.

Mike De Luca will produce with Houston Hill, who acquired the rights through Santa Rita Film Co, which produced The Iron Orchard, which Roberts directed from a script he wrote with Garrison. Angelique De Luca will also produce alongside Brinton Bryan, latter of whom arranged financing through his Greenbelt Films banner. George Young Jr., Rhett Bennett, Greg McCabe and J. Todd Harris will be executive producers. Production starts this fall in Fort Worth, Texas.

Wilson can next be seen starring opposite Ansel Elgort in the John Crowley-directed The Goldfinch, and the Atom Egoyan-directed Guest of Honour, films that will premiere next month in Toronto. He is currently filming the Geoff John-directed Stargirl for DC and recently wrapped Zombieland 2 for Sony, and the Brett Haley-directed All The Bright Places.

Wilson is repped by CAA.

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