Joel Schumacher (yes, he’s still making movies) has just assembled the cast for his next movie, the drug-dealer drama Twelve – and it pretty much defines ‘eclectic’.

Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts – daughter of Eric, niece of Julia, distant cousin of Home & Away’s Alf, 50 ‘Curtis Jackson’ Cent, Rory Culkin, Ellen Barkin and Jack Bauer himself, Kiefer Sutherland, have all signed on to appear in the movie, based on Nick McDonell’s 2002 novel about a young New York drug dealer whose life is turned upside down when his cousin is murdered and his best friend is arrested for the crime.

That’s one heck of a cast, and we’re intrigued to see how it pans out. Can Crawford carry his first big screen lead? How will Sutherland fare upon reteaming with his Lost Boys/Flatliners director? And will 50 Cent finally put in a big-screen performance that shows why people keep casting him?

McDonell was 17 when he wrote the critically-acclaimed novel, so hopefully there’ll be a fair amount of authenticity to the youthful viewpoint here. Whether Schumacher, a 69 year-old man, is the right person to elicit that authenticity is open to question, though, but he’s had success with teen movies before. He’s wildly inconsistent as a director, though – for every Tigerland, there’s a Batman & Robin. Let’s hope this is one of his better efforts.

Filming begins on April 20 in New York.