Alan Ball has set the cast and financing for his long-awaited feature directing debut, says Variety. The untitled drama will star Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette and Maria Bello. Steven M. Rales will finance.

Ball is using as inspiration the Alicia Erian novel "Towelhead," which he optioned in galley form in 2004 with his own cash. Ball wrote the script while presiding over his HBO series "Six Feet Under," of which he helmed six episodes.

Ted Hope is producing with Rales and Ball. Scott Rudin, Peggy Rajski and Hope's This Is That partner Anne Carey are exec producers.

The film tells the story of Jasira, who struggles with identity and sexual issues as the daughter of a Lebanese-American father and an American mother in Texas during the Gulf War.

Newcomer Summer Bishil has been cast to play the young girl and "Six Feet Under" regular Peter Macdissi will play a father trying to instill traditional Middle Eastern values in his daughter.