Francis Ford Coppola must be on the verge of taking a gigantic sigh of relief after struggling for 30 years to get Jack Kerouac’s Beat Generation classic On The Road to screens. Fans of the novel might have a different outlook, but at least two more solid actors have joined the cast, with Viggo Mortensen and Amy Adams signing deals to co-star. And no, that doesn't make it some sort of sequel to The Road, which Mortensen already starred in.

With Walter Salles gearing up to start shooting later this month, the ensemble already includes Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund, as Camille, Marylou, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty respectively.

Mortensen will play Old Bull Lee, a character Kerouac loosely based on William S Burroughs (only less of an old perv), while Adams is Jane (based on Joan Vollmer), the damaged junkie mother of two kids, and Lee’s wife.

Salles and regular collaborator Jose Rivera finally managed to get a script together that worked for the financiers and, with a cast of actual names attached, it actually has a shot at working this time.