Dakota Johnson, Bruce Dern Joining ‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’ With T-Bone Burnett Soundtrack

Dakota Johnson and Bruce Dern are joining Shia LaBeouf in The Peanut Butter Falcon for Armory Films. The film, was penned and will be directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz (The Moped Diaries). Newcomer Zachary Gottsagen (Becoming Bulletproof), who is the inspiration for the film, will play the principal character of Zak.

Gottsagen lives with high-functioning Down syndrome, and became the inspiration for The Peanut Butter Falcon after writing/directing duo Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz met him while working at a non-profit arts organization. The Peanut Butter Falcon follows a down-on-his-luck crab fisherman as he embarks on a journey to get a young man with Down syndrome to a professional wresting school in rural North Carolina and away from the retirement home where he’s lived most of his life. Cameras will roll in Savannah, GA on June 17.

Armory Films’ Tim Zajaros and Christopher Lemole are both financing and producing the film. Also producing are  Bona Fide Productions’ Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa (Little Miss Sunshine, Nebraska), T-Bone Burnett (Crazy Heart), Lije Sarki, and David Thies. Burnett will also produce the soundtrack.

Burnett won an Oscar for Original Song for Crazy Heart in 2009, and was also nominated for Cold Mountain in 2003.

Johnson is repped by WME; Dern by Innovative Artists and Pure Arts; Burnett by L J Entertainment, and Nilson, Schwartz and Sarki are represented by Management 360 and Bloom/Hergott. Armory films is represented by Dan Stutz.