Shannyn Sossamon, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Lara Flynn Boyle, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Mark Webber and Tony Plana will star in Buddy Giovinazzo's urban drug-addiction drama "Life Is Hot in Cracktown" says The Hollywood Reporter.

Sossamon will play a woman faced with the challenges of raising her sick child and supporting a husband (Victor Rasuk) who runs a drug-infested tenement building. Boyle plays Betty McBain, a cruel whore who leads a man off to find a missing girl.

Nicholas plays a rookie cop who relies on a street-toughened vet (Curtis-Hall) to show him the ropes. Webber plays a transvestite prostitute, and Kerry Washington plays a transgender co-worker. Plana plays an alcoholic, and Edoardo Ballerini also appears as an abusive boyfriend in a neighborhood that has been ravaged by crack and crime.

"Cracktown," set to be produced by William Fisch and Larry Rattner with Braxton Pope, is based on Giovinazzo's 1993 collection of short stories.