Julianne Nicholson (August: Osage County) and Emily Mortimer (The Newsroom) have joined the coming-of-age pic Ten Thousand Saints, set in the ’80s in New York City’s Lower East Side. American Splendor directing team Bob Pulcini and Shari Berman have assembled a fairly big cast for the project including Ethan Hawke, Emile Hirsch, and Ender’s Game co-stars Asa Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld. Mortimer will be playing Hawke’s girlfriend and Steinfeld’s mother, while Nicholson has been cast as Hawke’s ex-wife and mother of Butterfield.

Production began Monday with the directing team of Bob Pulcini and Shari Berman (“American Splendor”). Producers are Anne Carey and Amy Nauiokas for Archer Gray Productions, Trudie Styler and Celine Rattray for Maven Pictures, and Luca Borghese.

“Ten Thousand Saints,” set in the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1980s, follows three screwed up young people and their equally screwed up parents.

Mortimer will play the mother of Steinfeld’s character and Nicholson will portray the ex-wife of Hawke’s character and the mother of Butterfield’s character.

Mortimer is set to star in the third season of HBO’s “The Newsroom.” Nicholson stars in “August: Osage County” and Showtime’s “Masters of Sex.” Mortimer is repped by ICM, 42 Management, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and attorney David Weber.  Nicholson is repped by CAA and Davien Littlefield.

• from Variety