Tom Arnold, Helen Slater Join 'Curse of Downers Grove'

The latest additions to the cast of the upcoming film The Curse of Downers Grove, based on the 1999 novel Downers Grove by Michael Hornburg, are Tom Arnold (True Lies) and Helen Slater (City Slickers, The Lying Game), Variety reports.

According to the site, Arnold will play "a brutal and abusive father who keeps his son supplied with steroids for his would-be pro-football career," while Slater will play the mother of main character Chrissie Swanson (Bella Heathcote of the 2012 Dark Shadows).

The current cast now includes Lucas Till (X-Men: First Class), Kevin Zegers (Dawn of the Dead), Zane Holtz (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Marcus Giamatti (Judging Amy) and Martin Spanjers (8 Simple Rules). Aimee Teegarden and Jill Hennessy are no longer attached.

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 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.