Ever since Francis Ford Coppola bought the rights to Jack Kerouac’s beloved beat generation road trip novel On The Road in the seventies, he’s been trying to get it made into a film. The latest development? Tron Legacy’s Garrett Hedlund is in talks for one of the lead roles.

The book is closer than ever to getting filmed, though it’s still taken ages. Despite Coppola hiring Motorcycle Diaries director Walter Salles and scriptwriter Jose Rivera to handle it in 2005, very little has been heard of it since then, beyond rumours of Control’s Sam Reilly getting the part of Sal Paradise, the character Kerouac based on himself.

According to Production Weekly, Hedlund is circling the other leading part, that of Dean Moriarty (whom Kerouac took from real-life beat hero Neal Cassady) and the film might actually get to shoot this summer. Emphasis strongly on the might…