We’ve got a couple of casting stories to share this evening.  First up, Ray Liotta is the latest actor to join the human cast of The Muppets sequel.  Ricky Gervais is set as the lead with Ty Burrell and Tina Fey poised to co-star, and Variety now reports that Liotta is joining the sequel in an unspecified role.  This isn’t Liotta’s first time with The Muppets, as he also appeared in 1999’s Muppets from Space.  The Europe-set film will be directed by James Bobin and production is scheduled to begin in London this month.

Hit the jump for casting news concerning the horror-comedy Kitchen Sink.

Taissa Farmiga, Spencer Lofranco, and Nicholas Braun signed on to the indie dramedy Admissions.  Andy Garcia and Vera Farmiga star as “a man and woman who fall in love while taking their children on a college admissions tour.”  According to THR, Lofranco will play Garcia’s son and Taissa Farmiga will play Vera Farmiga’s daughter.  The common last name and 21-year age gap between them sounds perfect for an on-screen mother-daughter duo.  But in fact, the Farmigas are actually sisters.  Braun will play an upperclassmen who is leading the tour.

Lofranco is new to the business, but I like what I saw of Braun and especially Farmiga on their respective basic cable shows, 10 Things I Hate About You and American Horror Story.  Writer/directors Glenn German and Adam Rodgers secured a nice cast for their feature directorial debut.  Shooting begins next month in Spokane, Washington.

The comedy previously known as Neighborhood Watch now has a new red band trailer and a new title.  To distance itself from the Trayvon Martin case in Florida, director Akiva Schaffer’s (Hot Rod) sci-fi comedy is now simply titled The Watch.  Nevertheless, this trailer exactly what I was hoping would come out of a Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, and Ben Stiller team-up.  Thankfully, it appears they’re going full-R on this one based on the a high number of f-bombs and dick jokes thrown into this red band clip.  The film stars Vaughn, Hill, Stiller and Richard Ayoade as a group of neighbors who form a local watch group and end up stumbling onto an alien plot to destroy the world.

I’m a huge fan of Hot Rod, and it looks like Schaffer is bringing some of the same oddball humor to this film. The sci-fi aspect is played way up in this trailer, and I especially love how the characters react after stumbling upon an unknown alien weapon.  Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Billy Crudup, Will Forte, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Nicholas Braun. The Watch opens July 27th.

On March 21^st, Collider was invited along with a handful of other outlets to the set of the new CBS Films comedy Get A Job, directed by Dylan Kidd (Rodger Dodger) and following four recent college graduates (played by Miles Teller, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Brandon T. Jackson and Nicholas Braun) who discover that their lofty expectations and the realities of adulthood are two very different things.

While we’ll post what he had to say about making that film closer to its release, which is expected to be sometime next year, we did want to share what actor Nicholas Braun had to say about his lead role in Kevin Smith’s hockey film Hit Somebody.  Check out what he had to say about the script after the jump:

CBS Films announced a few more additions to the ensemble comedy Get a Job today. Community star Alison Brie, Nicholas Braun (Red State), Brandon T. Jackson (Tropic Thunder) and Jay Pharoah (Saturday Night Live) have been added to a cast that includes Bryan Cranston, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Miles Teller (Footloose). The multi-generational comedy centers on four recent college graduates “who discover that their lofty expectations and the realities of adulthood are two very different things.” Teller leads the cast as a guy who finds his true calling after struggling through an entry-level job, and Braun, Mintz-Plasse and Jackson will play Teller’s three friends who each find different careers. Brie will play “one of the group’s sharp-witted coworkers” and Pharoah plays a character that starts his own recession-proof business. Jesse Eisenberg had been looking to make a cameo role in the pic, but the press release (predictably) makes no mention of his involvement. Hit the jump for more, including the full press release.

We have a few bits of casting news to bring your way this afternoon. First up, Shirley MacLaine has signed on to director Sue Kramer’s (Gray Matters) indie The Locals which also has Alan Arkin and Vera Farmiga in talks to join. Per Deadline, The Locals will seek to place the timeless Romeo & Juliet tale in a contemporary setting and will feature a “Jewish/Italian twist.” Kramer penned the script for the film which will be co-produced by her Bella Films moniker alongside Grow Pictures and Curious Pictures. Production on the pic is set to begin in the Bronx this fall.

Next up, Variety reports that Prom‘s Nicholas Braun has been added to director Akiva Schaffer’s (of The Lonely Island and Hot Rod fame) comedy Neighborhood Watch. Braun joins a cast that already includes Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Rosemarie DeWitt. Watch is written by Superbad cohorts Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and centers on a group of neighbors who, in the process of keeping their streets crime free, find themselves in the middle of a larger conspiracy. The film is due out next summer on July 27th. As for Braun, the young actor also nabbed the lead in Fox’s upcoming comedy Gay Dude and can be seen alongside Paul Rudd, Emma Watson and Logan Lerman in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories for you this afternoon. First up, Robert Patrick has signed on to Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer’s period cop drama Gangster Squad. Showblitz reports that Patrick will take on the role that Bryan Cranston was originally in talks for: an LAPD officer from Texas. The plot revolves around the elite squad of cops who hunted down gangster Mickey Cohen in 1940s Los Angeles. The stellar cast includes Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi and Holt McCallany. Emma Stone recently entered negotiations to sign on as well.

Additionally, comedian Hunter Cope is set to join Nicholas Braun (Prom) in the Lionsgate comedy Gay Dude, with Modern Family star Sarah Hyland in talks to take on a supporting role. The story centers on two high schoolers who make a pact to lose their virginity before graduation. Complications arise, however, when one of the teens comes out of the closet. Variety reports that Cope will play the title character, with Braun taking on the role of his straight best friend who is tasked with finding Cope a boyfriend. Hyland plays Braun’s “prudish girlfriend.” Chris Nelson (Ass Backwards) directs from a script by Alan Yang (Parks and Recreation).

Confidence is a crucial quality in a filmmaker.  Unlike the artistic expression of a painting or a novel, a film requires marshaling a small army to execute thousands of decisions in order to achieve a filmmaker’s vision.  Kevin Smith is not a filmmaker who exudes confidence.  After the noble failure of Jersey Girl, he retreated to the safety of Clerks II and then followed it up with the simple-yet-enjoyable Zack and Miri Make a Porno and the widely-despised Cop Out.  His new film, Red State, is a radical departure for Smith and yet he lacks the confidence to properly execute the action-horror-thriller he’s devised.  Visually and aurally impressive and featuring a phenomenal performance from Michael Parks, the film never completely comes together as it’s undermined by poorly-timed humor, clumsy exposition, and a refusal to trust the audience with ideas more complex than “fascism is bad.”

Kevin Smith has released the first teaser trailer for his upcoming horror movie Red State.  Premiering at next month’s Sundance Film Festival, Red State is a huge departure for Smith as the flick is about “a group of misfits [who] encounter extreme fundamentalism in Middle America.”  The film stars Michael Parks, Michael Angarano, Kyle Gallner, John Goodman, Melissa Leo, Kevin Pollak, Anna Gunn, Stephen Root, and Smith’s Hit Somebody lead Nicholas Braun.  Parks is said to play a Fred Phelps-type preacher who leads a family of followers.

If you’ve been following the development of Red State, you know Smith had a really tough time getting the financing together due to the difficult subject matter.  And after watching the trailer, I can see why.  Red State looks nothing like his previous films and I’m definitely catching this at the first press screening at Sundance.  While I loved Smith’s first few films, I’ve been very disappointed with his recent output.  And his attitude about critics hasn’t helped his cause.  Saying all that, I’d love for him to rebound with Red State.  Judge the trailer for yourself after the jump.

Hot off the heels of news that Kevin Smith’s upcoming horror film Red State was recently accepted into the Sundance Film Festival, new images have been revealed from the film and a new poster has been unveiled by Smith himself. The poster was released by Smith via Twitter as a “thank you” to fans who pledged $1000 to The Wayne Foundation in less than 30 minutes. The Wayne Foundation is a charity devoted to stopping pederasts, with a mission to provide young women who have fallen victim to commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking with a means of leaving the sex industry for good.

The poster unveiled by Smith features Red State actress Kerry Bishe, and is one of four posters that Smith plans to release next week starting Monday. The headline of the poster, “The Virgin”, asserts Smith’s statement on his “Red State of the Union” podcast that the film begins very much like an 80’s horror film.  Smith’s podcast has been the source of a great deal of news concerning the film, particularly his description of the flick as essentially about “sex, religion, and politics.”  The images from the film that were released showcase Smith’s stellar cast, and confirm that the film is a drastic departure from his previous catalog of films. Hit the jump the check out the poster and images, as well as a bit more on the flick.

While Kevin Smith recently wrapped filming (and completed a first cut) of his horror film Red State, he’s also looking ahead to his hockey-centered film that will be his follow-up. Hit Somebody is a script that Smith has been working on for a while, that’s based on the Warren Zevon song of the same name, with lyrics written by Mitch Albom.  Via his most recent edition of his Hollywood Babble-On podcast with Ralph Garman, Smith revealed that he’s found his lead in actor Nicholas Braun, who Smith recently worked with on Red State. In fact, Smith said that he found “so much of [his Hit Somebody] cast making Red State,” so expect to see a few familiar faces once Hit Somebody rolls around (including podcast co-host and Red State cast member Garman, Smith confirms). Smith had this to say about casting Braun as his lead:

He’s this really really great actor who I love to death and he is the perfect lead for this script…he’s such a good guy, he’s a sweetheart and he’s fuckin so dope in [Red State]

Braun’s credits include Sky High and the short-lived TV series 10 Things I Hate About You. He’ll next be seen in the upcoming high-school dramedy from Disney, Prom.  Seann William Scott was previously attached to star in Hit Somebody after working with Smith on Cop Out, but chose to star in Jay Baruchel’s hockey comedy Goon instead when Smith decided to film Red State first.  For more on Smith’s upcoming projects, including more info on the plot of Red State, hit the jump.

Disney has released the first trailer and images from its upcoming teen comedy/drama Prom. Starring Aimee Teegarden from the fantastic Friday Night Lights (seriously, if you haven’t watched this show, get on it) and relative newcomer Thomas McDonell, the film centers on a group of teenagers getting ready for their senior prom. Joe Nussbaum (Sydney White) directs from a script by Katie Welch (Stephen King’s The Dead Zone).  The flick looks to have a small documentary-style element and focuses on high school seniors pontificating on the seminal importance of, you guessed it, prom.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer and images, as well as an official synopsis of the film. Prom will hit theaters on April 29^th, 2011.

The ensemble high school comedy Prom has been on Disney’s development slate for a few months now; the studio has now assembled a cast of relative unknowns to star.  The only name I (rather adoringly) recognize is Aimee Teegarden (Friday Night Lights), who will star alongside Thomas McDonell, Danielle Campbell, Nolan Sotillo, Yin Chang, Jared Kusnitz, Nicholas Braun, Ben Esler, Kylie Bunbury, and DeVaughn Nixon.  May you find your own Teegarden on the playbill, and may you hit the jump to discuss the project further.