Cryer and Spader Don "Shorts"

Jon Cryer and James Spader have signed on for Robert Rodriguez’s Shorts, a family adventure movie also starring William H. Macy and Leslie Mann.

Rodriguez (pictured), who also wrote the screenplay, is producing the film with Elizabeth Avellan under their Troublemaker Studios banner. Rodriguez is serving as his own director of photography, editor and visual effects supervisor. He’s been known to do everything (if you haven’t seen El Mariachi yet, you MUST check it out).

Also among the cast is Jimmy Bennett (Star Trek), Kat Dennings (The 40-Year-Old Virgin), Trevor Gagnon (The New Adventures of Old Christine), Leo Howard (G.I. Joe), Devon Gearhart (Changeling), Rebel Rodriguez (Planet Terror), and Jake Short and Jolie Vanier.

“Shorts” is in fictional Black Falls, a suburb where everyone works for Black Box Unlimited Worldwide Industries, Inc., whose communication gadget is sweeping the country. A young boy (Bennett) discovers a rainbow-colored rock that grants wishes to anyone who holds it, which first causes havoc amongst the kid population before turning up several notches when adults get their hands on it.

Image: Robert Rodriguez, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Columbia Pictures, 2003; Source: Hollywood Reporter