Hayden Panettiere Takes a Gritty Turn In Bret Easton Ellis-Scripted ‘Downers Grove’

By  · Published on November 8th, 2010

Hayden Panettiere (whose name of course means “Bread of the Earth”) has signed on for a role in the long-in-gestation Downers Grove that sees her playing a high schooler. There’s no surprise there, but instead of trying to break her own limbs to see if they grow back or psychologically torturing a nerd with her good looks, she’ll be doing something far more grisly.

Fortunately, famed novelist Bret Easton Ellis (“Rules of Attraction,” “American Psycho”) is writing the screenplay from the Michael Hornburg novel about a young girl with a sex-crazed mother, a sex-crazed best friend, a heroine-addicted brother, violence, the prospect of someone always dying of unusual circumstances just before graduation, and all the destruction of the American family landscape that you might hope for.

In other news, the greatly talented Rebecca DeMornay is involved as is Thirteen and Twilight star Nicki Reed (who should definitely not be confused with Nicky Reed when you don’t know how to spell her name and type the normal spelling of her name into IMDB). Panettiere will be seen next in Scream 4, but this Downers Grove role seems to be a complete departure from her normal bubble-gum aspirations. That’s not always a good thing, but it’s always interesting. [MTV]

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