New Cast, Director Sign on for Film Adaptation of 'Downers Grove'

Two years after the project was first announced, production is finally moving forward on the film adaptation of the novel Downers Grove.

Filming will begin in Los Angles this summer on The Curse of Downers Grove, which tells the story of a high school senior in Downers Grove, IL, who must escape a death curse, according to a Variety report.

Derick Martini, who directed the indie film Hick, is helming the script he co-wrote with Bret Easton Ellis, author of the violent novel American Psycho. The script is based on the 1999 novel Downers Grove by Michael Hornburg.

The thriller will star Lucas Till, of X-Men: First Class, and Aimee Teegarden of Friday Night Lights. Also starring are Jill Hennessy and Kevin Zegers.

The blurb on the back cover of the book reads:

Downers Grove is the haunting and tender story of Chrissie Swanson, a paranoid high school senior for whom graduating has become a matter of life or death. She's an unusual girl in an ordinary town. Her mother's sex life is overshadowing her own; her brother is aboard his own private Enterprise, slipping into one black hole after another; her best friend is hornier than a Prince song; and her eccentric grandmother has become the only source of wisdom in her rapid downward spiral..."

The film adaptation of Downers Grove was first announced by Myriad Pictures in 2010, when Nelson McCormick ("Prom Night") was set to direct and actresses Nikki Reed ("Twilight") and Hayden Panettiere ("Nashville") were set to star.

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