Hayden Panettiere and Nikki Reed have nabbed the leads in high school thriller Downers Grove, which Prom Night’s Nelson McCormick will direct for Myriad Pictures.
The plot sees Panettiere play a student at a seemingly cursed school in Chicago where one of the senior class dies bizarrely each year shortly before graduation. She starts to worry that she’ll be next. Rebecca De Mornay has also taken a role in the film, which means you’ll instantly be suspicious of her character.
It sounds like your standard scream-filled thriller, but then you realise that Brett Easton Ellis has adapted Michael Hornberg’s 2001 novel and we bet your interest level rises a little bit. We’re still concerned about McCormick, though – the last time he had the job of cinematically slaying a series of teens, he didn’t exactly create the best film.
Still, someone has faith: "The combination of the thriller genre, a very popular and well-known cast, Bret Easton Ellis' dynamic screenplay and Nelson McCormick's incredible skill with young actors and ability to create tension and terror on-screen is just unbeatable," Myriad’s Kirk D'Amico tells Variety. Let’s hope he’s right…