The upcoming Disney+ original movie Out of My Mind has added Rosemarie DeWitt (The Staircase), Luke Kirby (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Judith Light (American Crime Story), Michael Chernus (Severance), and Courtney Taylor (Insecure) to the cast.
Directed by Amber Sealey (No Man of God) from an adapted screenplay by Daniel Stiepleman (On the Basis of Sex), Out of My Mind follows Melody Brooks, a girl with cerebral palsy. Melody has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but due to her being non-verbal and using a wheelchair, she is not given the same academic opportunities as her classmates. However, when Katherine, a young educator notices her student’s untapped potential, she encourages Melody to participate in mainstream education, where greater successes – and challenges – await.
Newcomer Phoebe-Rae Taylor will star as Melody, after being discovered through a worldwide casting search. According to Deadline, DeWitt portrays Diane, Melody’s mother, and fiercest advocate, and Kirby plays her supportive father, Chuck. Light plays Mrs. V., the Brooks’ eccentric but caring neighbor who, though her style may be unconventional, always looks out for Melody. Taylor is Katherine, a post-doctoral candidate, and educator, and Chernus plays Mr. Dimming, Melody’s teacher and coach of her school’s trivia team.
What is really neat about the production side of the project is the team has multiple members of the cerebral palsy and AAC (augmentative and alternative communication device) community, who have been attached to the project since its early days of development.
Production is underway in Toronto and is expected to quickly shoot through the end of August, early September. With such a small production window (so soon), it wouldn’t be unreasonable to believe that the film could debut on Disney+ early next year. However, that is pure speculation, and it is likely we could have a definitive release date come Disney+ Day or D23 in September.
