Twilight‘s Jackson Rathbone just finished filming a new movie, Girlfriend. Up until recently, very little was being said about the plot, but MTV caught up with the direct, Justin Lerner, and got us a few details.

The big secret they’ve been hiding is Evan Grey, the film’s main character. Evan is a young man with down syndrome in search of love. The object of his affection is single mom Candy, played by Shannon Woodward, whom he’s loved since high school. Candy is in a waning relationship with Russ (Rathbone), and has a friendship with Evan. Evan doesn’t quite understand the concept of a girlfriend, creating an awkward love triangle.

Evan Sneider not only plays the main character, but he was the inspiration for the film as well. After bumping into Evan while visiting his hometown, Justin thought he would be an excellent premise for a film. He had the following to say on his idea for the film:

We’re in an economic crisis, and [the film is set] in a small town where there’s lots of lying, deceit, jealousy, rage, violence. Evan is pure good. He’s pure innocent love. How fascinating would it be to put pure, innocent, unconditional love […] into this world, and see what happens.

This is definitely going to be a heartfelt film, and probably a tear jerker too. As of now, there is no specific release date, but the film should come out sometime next year (2010). Plenty of time to get the box of tissues ready.