Halifax-based filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald has cast Olympia Dukakis and fellow Oscar winner Brenda Fricker for Cloudburst, his Thelma and Louise-like comedy feature for U.S. indie producer Sidney Kimmel Entertainment.

Fitzgerald will direct the road comedy from his own script in Nova Scotia, starting later this month.

Dukakis previously co-starred in two of Fitzgerald’s earlier features, 3 Needles and The Event.

In her latest collaboration with Fitzgerald, Dukakis and Irish actress Fricker (Stone of Destiny, Veronica Guerin) will play seniors who break out of a nursing home and drive to Canada to get married, only to get sidetracked by a young male hitchhiker.

Dukakis had a supporting role in an earlier nursing home drama, Sarah Polley’s Away from Her.

Fitzgerald will share the producer credits on Cloudburst with Doug Pettigrew. William Jarblum will executive produce.

Fitzgerald is repped stateside by Vicki McCarty at Covington International and in Canada by Charlotte Rose at Green Light Artist Management. Dukakis is repped by Parseghian/Planco Management and William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, while Fricker is repped by IFA Talent Agency and Cassie Mayer Ltd.