We’ve got a few casting stories to share this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Jon Hamm will be lending his voice to one of the lead roles opposite Sandra Bullock in Illumination Entertainment’s spinoff Minions.
• Fresh off her turn in Oblivion, actress Olga Kurylenko has joined the cast of director Mark Waters’ (Mean Girls) YA adaptation Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters.
• Andy Garcia and Ray Romano are joining the cast of the crime drama Rob the Mob.

Hit the jump for more details.

Currently the hilarious workplace comedy Workaholics on Comedy Central is in the middle of their third season, and this season’s guest stars have been pretty interesting with Rumer Willis and the band The Black Keys showing up (not to mention what might be the cameo of the year from All That cast member Lori Beth Denberg). Now another familiar face to TV is heading to the series as EW reports Tim Heidecker, fresh off Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, has landed a guest spot. So who will he play?

The role sounds about as outrageous as you would expect with Heidecker playing the leader of a group called The Lord’s Force, which series creator, writer and star Adam DeVine describes as “a religious group of weight lifters that use the power of the Lord to break baseball bats over their knees.” Apparently Adam, Ders and Blake welcome some of these guys into their casa and that’s when the fun begins. The episode airs July 10th, so don’t miss it.  For news on Ray Romano snagging a few episodes of the fourth season of Parenthood, hit the jump.

The second full trailer for Ice Age: Continental Drift has been released.  The fourth installment in the Ice Age franchise finds the kooky characters attempting to survive the breakup of Pangea, when Earth’s supercontinent begins to rift.  Though I’m not the biggest fan of the series, there are more than a few laughs to be found in this latest trailer.  The MVP of the franchise has always been John Leguizamo’s Sid the Sloth, and he shines in this latest clip.  We also get a glimpse of the film’s antagonists, a gang of pirates led by a prehistoric orangutan voiced by Peter Dinklage.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The voice-cast includes Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Wedge, John Leguizamo, Aziz Ansari, Nick Frost, Joy Behar, JB Smoove, Alan Tudyk, Heather Morris, Josh Gad, Kunal Nayyar, Alain Chabat, and hip/hop artist Nicki Minaj. Ice Age: Continental Drift opens in 3D on July 13th.

A new trailer for the fourth installment in the Ice Age franchise, Ice Age: Continental Drift, has gone online. In this adventure, Scrat accidentally triggers the breakup of Pangea and thus the splitting of the continents while pursuing that ever-elusive acorn (seriously, there are other acorns in the world, Scrat). This trailer highlights this entry’s newest inhabitants: the Gigantopithecus (an extinct genus of ape). I’m not the biggest fan of the series, but kids seem to love it and the movies make a great deal of money at the box office so I guess there’s an audience for the fourth entry.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The voice-cast includes Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Wedge, John Leguizamo, Aziz Ansari, Nick Frost, Joy Behar, JB Smoove, Alan Tudyk, Heather Morris, Josh Gad, Kunal Nayyar, Alain Chabat, and hip/hop artist Nicki Minaj. Ice Age: Continental Drift opens in 3D on July 13th.

Let me start by saying that I have not seen the entirety of the Ice Age movies.  I have seen small parts at a time but this was my first full experience with these characters.  I watched it with my 4-year old daughter as well, so I can offer some of her perspective (if it seems more mature than mine, I am sure it is simply an error in reading skills).

It had been a long time since I had seen a “new” animated Christmas special.  My daughter and I regularly watched animated holiday videos this season like Charlie Brown, Rudolph, and Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas (which I believe still holds up). Hit the jump for my review of Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas on DVD.

Three more names have been added to the list of potentials candidates vying for the role Steve Carell is leaving vacant at the end of the current season of The Office. In addition to the previously announced Will Arnett and Ricky Gervais, TV Line reports that Ray Romano, James Spader and Catherine Tate will also guest star in this season’s finale as potential replacements for the office manager position Carell is leaving open.

Will Ferrell is also a “candidate”, though his guest arc on the show is set to end in May. Romano is currently starring on Men of a Certain Age, Arnett is set to star in a new NBC pilot, and Gervais doesn’t seem likely to stick around, so it would appear that the only candidates left that would actually stay on the show are Spader and Tate. Spader racked up his fair share of Emmys on the dramedy Boston Legal and Tate’s won numerous awards for her work on her sketch comedy show The Catherine Tate Show. She also co-starred in Doctor Who’s fourth series.

It’s awards season, and while praiseworthy films like The Social Network and The King’s Speech are all critics and press can talk about, comedy is generally consistently overlooked at the Oscars. And while the Golden Globe offers an award for Best Musical or Comedy, it’s nearly impossible to compare the two evenly, and The Hollywood Foreign Press nominates laughless films like The Tourist in that category anyway. Well Comedy Central and MTV Networks have had enough of that nonsense. While laughter might be the best reward for any comedian, the two networks have decided to create The Comedy Awards, a broadcast awards event to honor the best comedy films, actors, TV series, digital content and stand-up acts. It’s about damn time.

More details on the new annual awards show can be found after the jump.

There comes a time in every man’s life when circumstances turn dire. Our bodies begin to ache; running and physical activities no longer seem as appealing; we lose hair; food becomes a safety hazard; and women exude little, if any, interest in those wrinkles gathering beneath our eyes. I’m 28 years young, but I’ve always feared the big 30. I can only imagine my feelings once I near 40, and then 50. The word “terrifying” comes to mind.

Perhaps that’s why I’m so grateful for TNT’s Men of a Certain Age, a television series that shows mid-life in an optimistic, even grateful light. The aches and pains remain, but they are outweighed by the new experiences the 45+ chapter of life affords.  Hit the jump for my review of the first season on DVD.

Prime time drama is something usually reserved for blow-em-up action, unrealistic life situations, or a very complicated love triangle (octagon, etc). All of these are extremely over the top, and, for the most part, are completely lost on male audiences. From Ray Romano comes Men of a Certain Age, a show that looks to change all that, a show that gives viewers the things most shows can’t: a believable drama that has the allure of intense story, while also being accessible by everyone who watches it, especially men.

Men of a Certain Age follows three lifelong friends in their daily lives. Joe (Ray Romano) is the owner of a party supplies store whose recently separated from his wife, Owen (Andre Braugher), a car salesman who is knee deep with family issues of his own, and Terry (Scott Bakula), a man who has spent his entire life living in the moment and never looking toward the future. Each of these men are dealing with problems in their life, such as gambling or loneliness, and try to hold on to what sense of normalcy they can, all while still remaining friends.  More after the jump: