Joel Schmaucher casts six for TWELVE!

Manhatten born writer Nick McDonell was compared to Brett Easton Ellis when he wrote the international bestseller Twelve, aged just 17 back in 2002. The novel which subjected on a compelling mix of drug use, lust and upper class decadence made his debut work a provocative read, which Michiko Kakutani from The New York Times called "as fast as speed, as relentless as acid." Now Variety carry word that Joel Schmaucher, the more miss than hit director of some of the worst films I have ever had to endure in a cinema (Batman & Robin, The Number 23, Bad Company) is making a movie out of the novel. Maybe I should lighten up on the Schmaucher hate, I did like The Lost Boys after all. "Nick McDonell is the real thing... I'm afraid he will do for his generation what I did for mine" - Hunter S. Thompson. You just can't buy that kind of front cover quote... proof enough this novel is an important one. Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Ellen Barkin and Kiefer Sutherland, make up the core cast for the film adaptation. Pop Matters carried the plot...

Twelve is the story of rich, bored, recreational-drug-using high school kids on Christmas break in New York City. There's the triumvirate of violence, sex, and drugs but, ultimately, very little for the reader to get high about. The issue isn't that the story isn't involving, but rather that, like the movie "Kids," Twelve wants to present a pocket of life that begins and ends without catharsis or validation.

Production begins April 20 in New York from a Jordan Melamed (director of Manic) script. Sounds a little like The Rules of Attraction and definitely belongs in the Ellis' esque universe. Let's hope Schmaucher has gotten whatever it is that's existed in his directing for the past ten years and can actually make a good picture.