When you think of a first-time filmmaker making a movie in his hometown of Niagara Falls, you think of wrangling all your friends to be extras, scrounging together enough money for digital tape, and begging the financing from your parents. But Jonathan Sobol has skipped all those steps, instead casting the likes of Dennis Hopper and J.K. Simmons in his directorial debut A Beginner's Guide to Endings, and getting Defendor director Nicholas Tabarrok to produce it.

In addition to Hopper and Simmons, THR is reporting that Battlestar Galactica hottie Tricia Helfer and Scott Caan have also joined hte cast. Caan will play one of a trio of brothers who somehow learn that they only have a few days left to live, and go about reversing all their mistakes. Hopper and Simmons play the uncle and father, respectively, with Helfer as Caan's character's girlfriend.