The comedy A.C.O.D., which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to positive reviews, has been picked up for distribution by The Film Arcade and Paramount Home Media.  The title stands for “Adult Children of Divorce” and the Stuart Zicherman-directed film centers on a guy (Adam Scott) who has been caught in his parents’ (Richard Jenkins and Catherine O’Hara) ugly divorce for the past twenty years, and matters become even worse when his brother gets engaged.  Then the details of the feud are revealed in a definitive new book on children of divorce.

I caught the film at Sundance (read Matt’s review here) and it’s a solid comedy with a big heart, and as a fellow A.C.O.D. it hit really close to home for me in quite a few parts.  It also features scene-stealing performances by Catherine O’Hara and Richard Jenkins, with other nice turns from Clark Duke, Amy Poehler, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.  The Film Arcade will be handling theatrical distribution in North America, while Paramount Home Media will manage domestic home entertainment, television licensing and digital distribution, as well as international distribution.  Hit the jump for the press release.

Now playing in theaters is the 3D animated feature, Escape from Planet Earth.  The story centers on some aliens who get captured during a mission to Earth and are tossed into the secure holding site of Area 51, but they quickly find that they are not alone.  Escape From Planet Earth features the voices of Rob Corddry, Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker, William Shatner, Jessica Alba, Jane Lynch, Sofia Vergara, Craig Robinson, George Lopez, Steve Zahn, Chris Parnell, Ricky Gervais and Jonathan Morgan Heit.

During the recent Los Angeles press day, I landed an exclusive interview with Jessica Alba.  We talked about making Escape From Planet Earth, the recording process, her experiences at this year’s Sundance (where she co-starred in the indie comedy, A.C.O.D.), Sin City 2 and how it compares to the first film, what else is coming up in 2013, and more.  Hit the jump for what she had to say.

In his feature directorial debut, A.C.O.D., Stu Zicherman has taken the premise for the episode of a sitcom, and turned it into a film that’s not only funny, but also surprisingly relatable for audience members represented by the title’s acronym, “Adult Children of Divorce”.  Speaking as an A.C.O.D., my parents never had the comical, over-the top fights featured in the movie, but Zicherman and co-writer Ben Karlin manage to work in a strong, emotional center to a comedy that works in broad strokes.  The movie may share the same plotline as sitcom episode, but thanks to its excellent cast and willingness to push its protagonist to emotionally unpleasant places, A.C.O.D. works for kids from broken and unbroken homes alike.

Yesterday, Sundance announced their stellar Premieres line-up and we have the first images from a few of the movies playing in the category:

• A.C.O.D. – Directed and co-written by Stuart Zicherman, co-written by Ben Karlin, starring Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Catherine O’Hara, Amy Poehler, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

• Don Jon’s Addiction – Written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, and Julianne Moore.

• The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete – Directed by George Tillman Jr., written by Michael Starrburry, starring Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks, Anthony Mackie, and Jeffrey Wright.

• The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman – Directed by Fredrik Bond, written by Matt Drake, starring Shia LaBeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, and Mads Mikkelsen.

Hit the jump for the images and synopses.  The 2013 Sundance Film Festival runs January 17 – 27.

Last week we saw the 2013 Sundance Film Festival announce lineups for its competition and Spotlight/Park City at Midnight programming, and today they have unveiled the list of films that will screen as part of the Premieres lineup.  It’s one hell of a program, as films that will screen include the Ashton Kutcher-fronted Steve Jobs biopic jOBS, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut Don Jon’s Addiction, director Richard Linklater’s trilogy-completing Before Midnight with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, the ensemble comedy A.C.O.D., director Park Chan-wook’s English-language debut Stoker, and much, much more.

Hit the jump to check out the full lineup for the narrative and documentary premieres.  The 2013 Sundance Film Festival runs January 17 – 27th.

In the all-new contemporary take on The Three Stooges, from Peter and Bobby Farrelly, actress Jane Lynch plays Mother Superior, the head nun at the orphanage where newborns Moe, Larry and Curly were left on the doorstep.  Now adults (and played by Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes and Will Sasso), they set out to help out the nuns, which also include Sister Mary-Mengele (Larry David) and Sister Rosemary (Jennifer Hudson), and raise enough money to save their childhood home, with all of the pratfalls and slapstick comedy that they’re famous for.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, the always funny and charming Jane Lynch talked about talked about her first exposure to The Three Stooges, how blown away she was to see them brought back to life so meticulously, how she got involved with the film, her most memorable moment with Larry David, working with Jennifer Hudson as a singing nun, wearing a nun’s habit in Atlanta in the summer, and what made Peter and Bobby Farrelly the right filmmakers to bring The Three Stooges back to life.  She also talked about voicing a character for the Disney animated feature Wreck-It Ralph, about a character from a 1980s video game who wants to get out of his game and into a more high-tech one, her role in A.C.O.D. (which stands for Adult Children of Divorce), the status of the Party Down movie, and what she’s looking forward to on her Fox TV series Glee.  Check out what she had to say after the jump:

We’ve got a couple of casting stories to share with you this evening. First up, Clark Duke (Kick-Ass) and SAG President (and frequent 30 Rock guest) Ken Howard are the latest to join the comedy A.C.O.D. The title stands for “Adult Children of Divorce”, and the plot centers on a guy (Adam Scott) who has been caught in his parents’ ugly divorce of the past twenty years, and matters become even worse when his brother gets engaged.  Then the details of the feud are revealed in a definitive new book on children of divorce.

The already stellar ensemble cast includes Scott, Amy Poehler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jane Lynch, Jessica Alba, Catherine O’Hara and Richard Jenkins. Variety reports that Howard will play Scott’s amicable stepfather and Duke will play Scott’s younger brother whose engagement forces the parents to meet once again. Duke is incredibly funny and Howard brings down the house on 30 Rock, so the two are very much welcome additions to an incredibly exciting project. Hit the jump for casting news concerning the next Percy Jackson film.

The cast of Stu Zicherman’s A.C.O.D. just got a little more Parks and Recreation-y with news that Amy Poehler will join a (pretty damn solid) cast, which already includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jane Lynch, Jessica Alba, Richard Jenkins, Catherine O’Hara, Clark Duke and Poehler’s Parks co-star Adam Scott. A.C.O.D. (which stands for “Adult Children of Divorce”) centers on a man named Carter (Scott), whose long-divorced parents (Jenkins and O’Hara) continue to damage his calm, particularly after he discovers that his folks enrolled him in a study on children of divorce, one that’s about to get started on a follow-up segment 20 years after the fact.

Per Deadline, Poehler will take on the role of Carter’s dad’s new wife, who’s got a serious beef going with her husband’s ex. Up to this point, Adam Scott has given me no reason not to be psyched about everything he’s in. And the prospect of seeing an Amy Poehler-Catherine O’Hara hate-off has me downright giddy (but, in a super-manly way).

Mary Elizabeth Winstead has joined Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, and Richard Jenkins in the comedy A.C.O.D. The title stands for “Adult Children of Divorce”, and the plot centers on a guy (Scott) who has been caught in his parents’ ugly divorce of the past twenty years, and matters become even worse when his brother gets engaged.  Then the details of the feud are revealed in a definitive new book on children of divorce.  According to Deadline, Winstead will be the rock and long-time girlfriend of Scott’s character.  Stuart Zicherman will make his directing debut on a script he co-wrote with Ben Karlin (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart).

Winstead gave one of the more buzzed-about performances coming out Sundance this year with her captivating dramatic turn as an alcoholic in Smashed, but she’s been crushing it in movies for a while now.  She’s convincingly played a bad-ass in The Thing, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and Live Free or Die Hard, and I’m excited to see how she’ll play off Scott, Jenkins, and Lynch in a comedy.  Winstead will next be seen playing Mary Todd Lincoln in the action flick Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

We have a couple of quick casting stories to report today.  First up, the great Richard Jenkins will re-team with his Step Brothers co-star Adam Scott in Stuart Zicherman‘ A.C.O.D. (Adult Children Of Divorce).  Ben Karlin (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) wrote the script, which centers on a guy (Scott) who has been caught in his parents’ ugly divorce of the past twenty years, and matters become even worse when his brother gets engaged.  Then the details of the feud are revealed in a definitive new book on children of divorce.  According to Deadline, Jenkins will play the father, “whose uncompromising lifestyle and vehement distaste for his ex-wife threatens to destroy the wedding.”  I can see the relation seeing as both Jenkins and Scott are both hilarious scene-stealers. If this is the kind of talent that the movie is attracting, I can’t wait to find out who they cast as the mother and brother.  Filming begins in March.

Hit the jump for casting news on By Virtue Fall, the directorial debut of Up in the Air co-writer Sheldon Turner.

At this year’s Toronto Film Festival, I was able to sit down with Adam Scott for an exclusive interview about Friends With Kids.  Written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein), the plot centers on a pair of thirtysomething best friends who observe the toll that having kids has taken on the couples they know and resolve to bypass that stress by having a child and then date other people.  Scott and Westfeldt play the lead couple, while Jon Hamm (who also produced), Kristen Wiig, Chris O’Dowd and Maya Rudolph play the couples with kids. Edward Burns and Megan Fox are also in the film.

During the interview, Scott talked about what the last few years have been like as he’s started landing some high profile gigs, how he got cast in the film, the short production schedule, being the lead with this great cast, future projects like Bachelorette, My Mother’s Curse, and A.C.O.D. (Adult Children of Divorce), and a lot more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the conversation.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories for you this evening. First up, Adam Scott is set to star in the indie comedy A.C.O.D. Deadline reports that Stuart Zicherman is making his directorial debut on the project, which he co-wrote with Ben Carlin (The Daily Show). The titular acronym stands for “Adult Children of Divorce,” and the film centers on a thirty-ish man whose parents split bitterly. Scott plays the lead who is forced to play the adult and get his parents back together, all while dealing with his brother who unexpectedly gets married. Scott steals scenes in pretty much every film he appears in, so it’s nice to see him get a leading role. Filming will begin next March, and Scott will work the schedule around filming on NBC’s stellar comedy Parks and Recreation.

Hit the jump for the casting of Matthew Daddario and Elise Eberle in Drake Doremus’ follow-up to Like Crazy.