If you've seen American Beauty, then you already know Kevin Spacey can do a mean pothead on screen -- especially one that is a little ticked at the way his life has turned out. Both skills will come in handy now that Variety has announced that Spacey has signed to star in the indie drama, Shrink. Jonas Pate is already on board to direct Thomas Moffett's script about a celebrity shrink in the midst of a personal crisis.

Spacey will play a psychiatrist to the stars who's thrown for a loop by a personal tragedy. When he is unable to deal with the loss, he becomes a chronic pothead and all-around burn out; eventually losing faith in his ability to help his patients. Starring as his various celebrity clients are Saffron Burrows, Jack Huston, Griffin Dunne, Robin Williams, Pell James, Robert Loggia, Keke Palmer, Laura Ramsey, Gore Vidal, Dallas Roberts and Mark Webber.

We Dougray Scott fans are used to disappointment. We've seen our man suited up for Wolverine and then de-clawed when Joo Woo couldn't bring in a movie on time, we've seen him so close to becoming Bond that he actually talked about it with the press -- what a Bond he could have been, too: snarling, Scottish orphan grown into an ice-water assassin -- and we've seen him reduced to bill-paying roles in films like Dark Water and Ever After. But hope springs eternal -- another chance at glory will come this October, when he takes on the bad guy role in the much-anticipated film Hitman. At this late stage of the game, I can't imagine he'd let an opportunity like that fly by without swinging hard for the fences, so buy your tickets early. Until then, we must make do with Perfect Creature, a direct-to-DVD feature being released today. As far as these things go, the film, a vampire story set in a fantasy version of New Zealand, is actually not all that bad.

Opening the action of the film are some lovely shots of zeppelins cutting across a moonlit sky; the world below is a Proyasian mish-mash of styles and eras, with thoroughly modern police detectives interacting with a Dickensian city panicked by the possibility of Influenza. The technology seems to have evolved along an alternate timeline; we get a completely random mixture of present-day gadgets mixed with what looks like vintage equipment. The film's vampires -- they prefer the term 'brothers' -- were born in some genetic freak event hundreds of years ago, and now co-exist among humans as a powerful minority sect who long ago wove themselves into the fabric of the predominant religion and have carefully honed their status as behind-the-scenes political players. They don't kill anyone, nor can they themselves be killed, although they do eventually die of old age, apparently. The problems begin when one of their own goes off the reservation and begins targeting humans. They try to bring him down themselves, but fail, prompting human cops to get involved.

You might have heard of Amy Redford. She has a fairly famous Sundance Kid for a father, and she has spent a number of years acting in both theater and cinematic productions. Now, news is out that the younger Redford is gearing up for her directorial debut -- a completely unsurprising and inevitable move. In 2002, while performing for CanStage, Redford talked with Eye.net about fighting the desire to follow in her father's footsteps, which is exactly what she's doing. Although her cinematic roles haven't brought her the same acclaim, she's following them up with an interesting indie directorial stint. The force is strong in this one. Before we know it, she'll have a famous film festival in some surprising locale.

If her directorial debut is any indication, it'll be a refreshing diversion from her father's tastes. The film in question is The Guitar, which has just entered production in New York. The script comes from punk filmmaker Amos Poe, who is seen by some as the father of America's indie cinema. Having worked with the likes of Debbie Harry and Lydia Lunch, its no surprise that the film revolves around a spunky woman with head-bangingly bad luck who yearns to follow musical aspirations. When she is diagnosed with terminal cancer, fired from a crappy job and dumped by her boyfriend, the woman uses her last two months to grab all the money available to her and fulfill her two dreams -- romance and playing the electric guitar. Boney actress Saffron Burrows is a logical pick to head the feature, and she's got Casino Royale's Isaach De Bankolé and indie punk actress Paz de la Huerta to back her up. The next branch on Hollywood's family tree has broken through.

We reported in November that Sony was putting together a 9/11 film called Reign O'er Me, about "a man who lost his family in the...attacks and has not recovered from his grief. He runs into his college roommate, who is now a psychiatrist and is determined to help him cope with the loss." Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle were then in talks to play the leads (Cheadle as the psychiatrist, Sandler as his roommate), and in the past four months they've become officially attached. Since then, the movie seems to have changed studios: it's now associated with Columbia, which has been working on expanded the cast. They hope it will include Liv Tyler, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Saffron Burrows; all thee are in the proverbial "final talks." Smith will play Cheadle's wife, Tyler one of his colleagues, and Burrows a frisky patient who "has entanglements with both men."

Apart from the cast expansion, by far the most interesting this about this report is the news that Smith has been taking a break from acting "to tour with her metal band Wicked Wisdom." I'm sorry, she WHAT? Jada Pinkett Smith is in a metal band? Since when? For the life of me I can't decided if this is incredibly awesome or hysterically funny. Possibly it's a bit of both, huh?