Since punching her way to pint-sized superstardom on the back of her role as Hit Girl in Kick-Ass, Chloe Moretz has become quite the in-demand actress, having already shot Let Me In and The Fields, plus landing one of the leads in Martin Scorsese’s The Invention Of Hugo Cabret. And she’s also going to find time on her freshly hectic schedule for Derick Martini’s coming-of-age indie drama Hick.
Andrea Portes’ has adapted her own novel, and the plot will find Moretz as Luli, a 13-year-old Nebraska with a hard-knock life. Her parents are drunks who argue at the local bar every night and when they both leave home, Luli is left to fend for herself.
Taking her parents’ Smith & Wesson pistol, she hitchhikes to Vegas, running into several undesirable types along the way and becoming mixed up in a botched robbery. And if the comparisons to Dakota Fanning’s first big stab at “mature” work in Hounddog weren’t already blatant, there’s even (assuming it has stayed in during the adaptation process), a moment where Luli is raped by one of the men she meets. It’s certainly not a heart-warming charm-fest.
Martini plans to kick off shooting later this year in New Mexico.