Good news Selina Meyer fans — HBO’s excellent, biting political satire Veep has been renewed for a third season.  The show has had steady ratings thanks to a big lead-in from Game of Thrones (last year it was paired in a programming bloc with Girls), and the premium network is showing its support three episodes into the series’ second season by going ahead and electing Selina for another term (maybe the President will call?)

Veep, created by Armando Iannucci (In The Loop), stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the hapless Vice-President, along with Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale, Reid Scott, Matt Walsh and Sufe Bradshaw as her staff. Veep airs Sunday nights at 10 p.m.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her third Emmy in as many series for Veep and it’s not hard to see why. She’s more than just a funny lady here – though to be sure, you may not see anyone quite as funny on television today. Underneath her hapless vice president’s pratfalls and panic attacks, she conveys a strange and abiding sadness. This figure is smart and capable. She wants to make the world a better place. She possesses the tools to leave the government in a better place than she found it. But by the very nature of the system in which she’s trapped, all her assets come to naught. She can only flail about in a mad effort to protect her image and her standing, a process as hysterical as it is quietly troubling. Hit the jump for my full review.

For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of enjoying In the Loop, a British comedy from Armando Iannucci, based on the series The Thick of It set in British government, finally the writer and director is bringing his comedic stylings to American politics. Julia Louis-Dreyfus continues her run as the second most successful cast member from Seinfeld to keep her career going strong with the HBO comedy series Veep. If Aaron Sorkin was a little more of a natural comedic writer, he would have written Veep instead of The West Wing. However, the political satire seems to be a bit less prevalent than the situational comedy, making it slightly less witty, but still very smart. Read my full take on the series premiere of Veep after the jump.

Directed by Matt Walsh, a co-founding member of the world-renowned comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade, the entirely improvised comedy High Road tells the story of Glenn “Fitz” Fitzgerald (James F. Pumphrey), a young man whose loyalties are split among his band, his girlfriend Monica (Saturday Night Live’s Abby Elliott), and selling weed. When one of his drug deals goes awry, Fitz and 16-year-old neighborhood kid Jimmy (Teen Wolf’s Dylan O’Brien) hit the road together. Amid car chases, guns and a suspicious doctor (Horatio Sanz), Fitz has to navigate their way to safety. The film also stars Lizzy Caplan (New Girl, True Blood, Party Down), Ed Helms (The Hangover 1 & 2), Rob Riggle (21 Jump Street), Joe Lo Truglio (Wanderlust) and Zach Woods (The Office).

During this interview, conducted at an audio commentary recording session for the DVD/Blu-ray, director Matt Walsh and actor Horatio Sanz talked about how the film was always intended to be a low-budget passion project, the challenges of keeping a totally improvised movie on track, shooting in a creepy old hospital in downtown Los Angeles, that the improvisational films of Christopher Guest and Zak Penn were an inspiration for this one, and how there will be a fair amount of extras included on the DVD/Blu-ray. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

A trailer is now available for High Road, the fully-improvised comedy by director Matt Walsh (The Hangover). Cast with a ridiculous number of improv comedians at all different levels of fame, High Road stars relative unknowns in the principal roles. James F. Pumphrey (Players) is Fitz, a well-meaning drug-dealer who hits the road to escape his problems and encounters some strange characters along the way. The strong supporting cast features Ed Helms, Rob Riggle, Horatio Sans, Kyle Gass, Abby Elliott, Lizzy Caplan and Zach Woods. While it plays like a mash-up of Harold and Kumar and Pineapple Express, I can’t quite figure out if it’s destined to be a cult classic or a simple misfire. Hit the jump to check out the trailer for High Road.

Delivering one of the best political satire comedies I’ve seen in years, In the Loop writer and director Armando Iannucci just had his new comedy series Veep picked up by HBO. Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the series follows former Senator Selina Meyer (Louis-Dreyfus), who becomes Vice President, only to discover the job is nothing like she expected, but everything she was warned about. The cast also includes In the Loop star Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale (Arrested Development) Matt Walsh (Outsourced) and more.

Iannucci says, “I’m thrilled more than anyone is legally entitled to be. HBO is the dream network to make television for, and I’m excited to be working with such a superb and funny cast headed by the uber-superb-and-funny Julia Louis-Dreyfus. If making season one of Veep is as much fun as making the pilot, then I can die chuckling. Plus, we get to say rude words.” Since In the Loop was filled with great comedy and colorful language, this sounds great to me. Hit the jump for the full press release with more details.

Fresh off his sure to be Academy Award-nominated role in The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg has chosen the indie comedy Free Samples as his next project. TheWrap reports Eisenberg will star alongside Jess Weixler (Teeth), Jason Ritter (The Event), Tippi Hedren (The Birds), Halley Feiffer (The Messenger), Keir O’Donnell (When in Rome), Jocelin Donahue (The House of the Devil), and Matt Walsh (The Hangover). Hit the jump for more on the project.

And to clarify, this is not a comedy that’s currently lacking a title. Untitled Comedy is the title. The film, which is currently in production, will be composed of a series of loosely related comedic sketches, featuring a plethora of different actors and directors. If you think it sounds a little bit like those atrocious Movie movies (you know, the ones brought to you by 2 of the 6 writers of Scary Movie), rest assured that Farrelly and co. have assembled a heap of high-end talent to bring their sketches to life. Stepping in front of the camera will be Elizabeth Banks, Gerard Butler, Kieran Culkin, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Sean William Scott, Tony Shalhoub, Emma Stone, Matt Walsh, Patrick Warburton, Naomi Watts, and Kate Winslet. Behind the camera, Elizabeth Banks, Bob Odenkirk, Brett Ratner, Griffin Dunne, and Farrelly himself have already helmed sequences, with more directors and cast slated to climb aboard as things progress.

The film is said to be in the mould of classic sketch comedies like John Landis’ The Kentucky Fried Movie, the 1977 flick penned by spoof masters David Zucker and Jim Abrahams (Airplane!) and Ken Shapiro’s 1974 skewering of television, The Groove Tube. Hopefully, that paints a picture for you. Hit the jump for the full press release and my thoughts on the project.

How can you not be down with Paul Rudd? His career renaissance is one of the best parts about comedies in the 21^st century, and since The 40-Year-Old Virgin he’s been an actor you can count on to just take it home. A lot of this rebirth has to do with his great turn in Wet Hot American Summer (a film that helped launch a number of talents, like Bradley Cooper and Elizabeth Banks), but audiences seem to have fallen in love with him all over again. As well they should. And with I Love You, Man and Role Models he even gets to headline films, though paired with another comic actor. My review of I Love You, Man after the jump.