Random cuts: Germs bio-pic and Shirley Manson acts

-- Peach Arch Entertainment has picked up a bio-pic on defining L.A. punk band the Germs, "What We Do Is Secret," for distribution, and will release it to theaters later this summer, according to a spokesman for the company. Peach Arch, the company behind the music-infused road movie "The Go-Getter,"  will open the film in Los Angeles on Aug. 23. "What We Do Is Secret" is also slated to play in New York (Aug. 8) and Chicago (Aug. 15).

More than a decade in the making, "What We Do Is Secret" screened last year at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Actor Shane West earned a positive review from Film Threat for his portrayal of Germs singer Darby Crash, and the band went so far as to reunite to play shows with West as the frontman. Crash died of a heroin overdose at the age of 22, and surviving Germ-turned-Foo Fighter Pat Smear served as a music producer on the film.

The film is the directorial debut of Rodger Grossman. He told the Times in 2007 that he cast West prior to his stint on "E.R." "I'm embarrassed to admit, I didn't know who he was, hadn't seen [the teen romance opposite Mandy Moore] 'A Walk to Remember'," Grossman recalled. "I still had my sights set on a lot of different names, but I looked at him and saw Darby. And he took me outside and just said, 'Look, you know, I'm your guy.' "

The Times piece, which is no longer online, spoke to Grossman about his long struggle to make the movie. Grossman was intent on chronicling that tragic demise of the Germs, and he earned in the process that Crash's death was allegedly the fulfillment of a pact the singer made with himself to bring his life to an end after five years onstage.

"This script was rewritten more times than probably any script I know of," Grossman said, "because what Darby did was so shrouded in secrecy that his character and story revealed itself very slowly. It was very late in the process that I had even heard that he had a five-year plan to make his mark and then commit suicide, thereby ensuring his legend."

-- Yesterday, the success of a pair of actress-turned-musicians was chronicled. Today comes news (The Hollywood Reporter via The Playlist) that Garbage singer Shirley Manson will try her hand at acting with a role in "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Manson is said to play Catherine Weaver, the CEO of a tech company.

With Garbage on hiatus, Manson has a long-in-the-works solo project. Producer/Garbage member Butch Vig spoke about working on the album on a recent episode of Sound Opinions, but there is no release date as of yet.

Photo: Shane West, Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times