The Motorcycle Diaries duo of Walter Salles and Jose Rivera will direct and write the script, respectively, for American Rust. Scott Stuber (Couples Retreat, The Break-Up) has acquired film rights to the debul novel from Philipp Meyer.
The story centers around two longtime friends from an economically depressed steel town in Pennsylvania whose dreams of escaping to California are dashed when they’re implicated in a crime.
Variety says the novel was recently short-listed for the 2009 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
