Staff report

An Austintown native will speak in Akron on Thursday following a screening of a movie he produced.

Ian Michaels, an Austintown Fitch High School graduate, is the producer of “Wayward,” about an 11-year-old girl who becomes enchanted with a charismatic female hitchhiker her mother picks up as they drive to their new home in Los Angeles. The girl and the hitchhiker form a bond that blurs the line between kidnapping and running away.

It is directed by Jacquelyn Frohlich and the cast includes Chloe Guidry (Hulu’s “Under the Bridge”), Jess Weixler (star of the film “Teeth”), Jessica Sula (who will play LaToya Jackson in the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic directed by Antoine Fuqua) and Will Brittain (Prime’s “Blow the Man Down”).

Michaels’ other producing credits include the Duplass Brothers’ “Rainbow Time,” “Face 2 Face” and the documentaries “Stars and Strife” and “America’s Burning,” which was screened last October at Regal Boulevard Centre in Niles with a post-film Q&A with local filmmaker Johnny Chechitelli.

Michaels will do a Q&A with Chechitelli following a screening of “Wayward” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at The Nightlight Cinema, 30 N. High St., Akron. Tickets are $10 adults and $8 students and senior citizens, available online at nightlightcinema.com.