Mark Ruffalo - "Delicious"

Mark Ruffalo and Jake at "Zodiac" Cannes Film Festival Premiere.

"Mark Ruffalo will make his feature directing debut on "Sympathy for Delicious."

Ruffalo will star with James Franco and Chris Thornton. Production begins this fall in Los Angeles, and the pic is fully financed by new company Corner Store Entertainment.

Thornton, who wrote the script, plays "Delicious" Dean O'Dwyer, a paralyzed DJ struggling to survive in his wheelchair on the streets of L.A. He turns to faith-healing and mysteriously acquires the ability to cure the sick -- although not himself. Ruffalo plays a Jesuit priest who tries to help him come to terms with the limits of his gift, and Franco a rock singer in a band that exploits the suddenly famous healer.

Pic will be produced by Andrea Sperling, Matthew Weaver, Scott Prissand, Ruffalo and Thornton, with Robert Stein and Joanne Jacobson exec producers.

The film is being financed by Corner Store Entertainment, a venture of Weaver and Prisand, who've quietly financed two other pics over the past several months and raised the coin to bankroll a slate of moderately priced films over the next three years.

Weaver, son of former Paramount marketing exec Gordon Weaver, has credits that include "The Heartbreak Kid" remake, the doc "Surfwise" and "Pretty Persuasion." Prissand has produced several stage musicals, including "Legally Blonde."

Source: www.variety.com