Well, now we'll finally see if Michael Pitt can act. Pitt (who has been something less than a knockout in "The Dreamers" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch") is set to star in "Last Days," Portland writer-director Gus Van Sant's soon-to-shoot film about the Northwest grunge rock scene of the 1990s, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Pitt, who looks to join a long list of young actors who have done the best work of their careers for Van Sant, is set to take the lead role as the front man of a band whose career resembles the trajectory followed by Nirvana. Lukas Haas ("Witness," "Johns") is in talks to play another band member.

"Last Days" will be shot in Oregon by Van Sant's Pie Films with funding provided by HBO Films, the same company that produced "Elephant," the director's 2003 Cannes Festival prize-winning movie about a high school shooting.

Van Sant fleshed out other roles in the film with an open casting call held last month in Portland. "Last Days" will be shot from a loosely written script that Van Sant will firm up through improvisations and discussions with the cast. -- Shawn Levy