With principal photography now underway, it has been announced that Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games), Zach Braff (Garden State), Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love), Ashley Greene (Twilight) and Ahna O’Reilly (The Help) have joined the cast of James Franco’s John Steinbeck adaptation In Dubious Battle.
The five new additions join an all-star cast alongside Franco, Selena Gomez (Hotel Transylvania), Vincent D’Onofrio (Daredevil), Robert Duvall (The Judge), Ed Harris (Snowpiercer), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Nat Wolff (The Fault in Our Stars) and John Savage (The Deer Hunter).
Set in a fictionalized valley in California, the story explores themes Steinbeck continued to develop: group behavior, social injustice, man’s inhumanity to man— all themes which continue to be relevant today. A labor conflict between migrant apple pickers and the local growers’ association is the backdrop against which Jim Nolan (Franco) becomes involved in the labor movement and rapidly matures as he learns what it means to do organizational fieldwork.