Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning join ‘20th Century Women’

Mike Mills has found his “20th Century Women.”

Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning have joined the cast of the writer-director’s intergenerational punk-rock dramedy, Annapurna Pictures announced Thursday.

Set in Santa Barbara during the summer of 1979, “20th Century Women” is to tell the story of three very different women and their influence on a boy coming of age against the backdrop of Jimmy Carter’s last days in office, oil and fiscal crises, and the arrival of punk music in suburban America.

Four-time Oscar nominee Bening will play Dorothea Fields, an iconoclastic mom raising the teenage boy, Jamie. Gerwig (“Frances Ha,” “Hannah Takes the Stairs”) will portray Abbie, a sophisticated young photographer who is forced to return to her hometown and ends up living with Dorothea and Jamie. Fanning (“Super 8,” “Maleficent”) will play Julie, a smart and secretively provocative friend of Jamie’s.

Mills, a multi-hyphenate filmmaker, artist and designer, has been known to draw inspiration from his own life for his work, including his semi-autobiographical 2010 movie “Beginners.” “Women” will continue the trend.

“These three characters are all women that I knew growing up,” Mills said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to have Annette, Greta and Elle, three incredible actresses who will bring an authenticity and vulnerability to each of these very strong, funny and complicated roles.”

“20th Century Women” is scheduled to shoot later this year in Southern California.

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