Spielberg protege joins Coppola family drama

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A teenager discovered by Steven Spielberg at a bat mitzvah will star in Francis Ford Coppola's new family drama "Tetro."

Alden Ehrenreich will play a young man who journeys to Buenos Aires to find his brother (Matt Dillon), who left the family years earlier. Spanish actress Maribel Verdu, who played the ill-fated mother in "Pan's Labyrinth," has joined the cast as the brother's girlfriend.

If a schedule can be worked out, Javier Bardem ("No Country For Old Men") would play an Argentinean literary critic named Unknown.

Production is due to start February in Buenos Aires, where thieves broke into Coppola's house in August and stole a computer disc containing the filmmaker's screenplay.

Ehrenreich's only credits are an episode of CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and an episode of the CW's "Supernatural." Spielberg discovered Ehrenreich's talent in a bat mitzvah video the youngster had done for a friend.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter