Nicolas Cage is joining forces with director David Gordon Green for an adaptation of Larry Brown's novel Joe.

Gary Hawkins is writing the screenplay that focuses on an ex-con (Nicolas Cage) who becomes a role model to a 15-year-old boy, the oldest child of a homeless family run by an alcoholic father. They both strive for a better life in their rundown Mississippi town. Here's what David Gordon Green had to say about the project.

"When Larry Brown wrote the novel Joe, he instantly created an iconic character of contemporary Southern literature. It is with great excitement that I've been able to work with Nicolas Cage to design an absolute and unexpected performance piece that is woven from the darkness, beauty, humor and environment of this material."

London-based WestEnd Films will handle international sales, with CAA handling financing and the domestic rights. The project will be shopped to foregin buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival. No production schedule was released.