Millennium Films has boarded the $9.5m Edward Norton comedy Leaves In
The Grass after the financing deal set up through New York-based Barbarian fell apart in the summer.

Tim Blake Nelson will start shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, on September 22 to take advantage of state tax incentives and Millennium's facility in the city. The Oklahoma-set story stars Norton as a Harvard professor and his pot growing identical twin who get involved in a scheme against a local drug lord played by Richard Dreyfuss.

Susan Sarandon will play the twins' mother and Keri Russell is in talks to play the young professor's love interest.

Norton and his Class 5 partner Bill Migliore will produce with Nelson, Langley Films' John Langley, Elie Cohn and Kristina Dubin. Millennium will handle international sales and Avi Lerner, Danny Dimbort and Boaz Davidson will serve as executive producers.

'Most identical twins will tell you they have an enormous amount of commonality,' Norton said yesterday. 'What Tim's written is an interesting paradox because although they're people who have gone in different directions, they're almost the same.'