The Los Angeles Times reports that Bruce Willis has signed on to play a supporting role in "Assassination of a High School President" from first-time writers Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski, former assistants on the "South Park" TV series.

A comedic homage to "Chinatown" set in a Catholic high school, "Assassination" is replete with surprising twists, duplicitous characters and a wry, hard-boiled voice-over delivered by Bobby Funke, a bullied sophomore investigating the theft of the school's SAT exams for St. Dominick's newspaper.

Of course, this leads to broader conspiracies, and no one is without a secret agenda. Willis will play principal John T. Kirkpatrick, a Desert Storm veteran fond of recounting pungent anecdotes from his time liberating Kuwait.

Yari Film Group optioned Jakubowski and Calpin's screenplay last fall, and Willis has signed a pay-or-play deal to shoot the film in July for video and commercial director Brett Simon, making his feature film debut.