The first trailer for director Stephen Sommers’ adaptation of the Dean Koontz novel Odd Thomas has made its way online.  The story centers on a short-order cook who can commune with the dead, with Anton Yelchin starring as the titular character.  It’s a uniquely “small” film for Sommers following the director’s previous tentpoles like Van Helsing, The Mummy, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, but he appears to be delving in similar territory as the more supernatural aspects of Odd Thomas are grounded by a healthy dose of humor and charisma from Yelchin.  The pic looks to strike a vibe similar to Men in Black or Beetlejuice, and it’s a bit too early to tell if it succeeds or not, but Yelchin’s starring turn sure is promising.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Willem Dafoe, Addison Timlin, Nico Tortorella, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Patton Oswalt.  Odd Thomas opens in theaters later this year.

Check out the latest casting announcements below:

• Nicholas Hoult (Jack the Giant Slayer) will join Charlize Theron in Dark Places from writer/director Gilles Paquet-Brenner who adapted the Gillian Flynn novel.
• Abigail Spencer (Oz the Great and Powerful) will join Jason Bateman in This Is Where I Leave You, directed by Shawn Levy.  Timothy Olyphant (Justified) and Ben Schwartz (House of Lies) have also joined the cast.
• Addison Timlin (Derailed) will lead the MGM remake of The Town That Dreaded Sundown directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Last week Zero Hour gave viewers plenty to chew on — Nazi devil babies, clones, secret societies, “new” Apostles — and while it was still completely ludicrous, it seemed worth checking out just for the fun.  The pilot went, in professional lingo, “balls out.”  It essentially jumped into the fifth season of Lost, and most everyone seemed fine with it.  This week, “Face” revealed all of Zero Hour’s many, many problems without fun things like devil babies (although we did hear them crying).  Mostly, it’s just really, truly terrible writing.  I don’t know how you can ruin a premise so swollen with potential as one focusing on Nazi conspiracies, but somehow Zero Hour has managed it.  For more on my evisceration of this hour of television, hit the jump. 

There’s only thing people love more than conspiracy theories, and that is hating Nazis.  Luckily, Zero Hour has both, plus the long-buried secrets of the Christian church, ancient languages, clockmaker secrets and international terrorist organizations.  Yes parts of the episode were clunky and broad, but it’s a broadcast network pilot, what do you want?  Did you not hear?  Conspiracies!  Nazis!  Anthony Edwards!  Zero Hour comes from the mind of Paul Scheuring, who created Prison Break, and is clearly no stranger to drawing things out.  But if ABC is smart the show will not fall prey to what happened to both Lost and Prison Break, and instead deliver a tight and coherent series.  We can only hope.  I’m getting ahead of myself — hit the jump to talk about the first episode and  what we learned from it.  Put on your tinfoil hat, comrades! 

Come to Collider for communication about casting for a couple of comedies:

• Michael Stahl-David, Sara Paxton, Zach Cregger, and Addison Timlin will star in the indie romantic comedy The Bounceback.
• Maggie Elizabeth Jones and Mary-Charles Jones, the adorable sisters from Footloose, will play the daughters of Jason Bateman and Amanda Peet in Identity Theft.

More on both projects after the break.

Justin Long, Jess Weixler (Teeth), Tyler Labine (Reaper), and Addison Timlin (Californication) will star in the indie Lumpy.  Deadline reports that the story “begins with a wedding in Arizona, where the groom (Long) and bride (Weixler) find their nuptials heightened by their life of the party best man, Lumpy (Labine). That’s until he dies at the end of the evening.” Which I suppose would then make him the death of the party.  Either way, the newlyweds cancel their honeymoon and head to Minneapolis to arrange a funeral, but slowly they discover that perhaps they didn’t know Lumpy as well as they thought.

Michael Landes, Evan Jones, and Shelley Long will co-star in the film, which is the feature directing debut of Ted Koland who also wrote the script.  Filming is currently underway in Minnesota.

Stephen Sommers’ Odd Thomas continues to round up an impressive cast despite being based on a Dean Koontz novel.  The film stars Anton Yelchin the eponymous character who is able to see and partially communicate with the dead.  In addition to rising stars Addison Timlin (Californication) and Nico Tortorella (Scream 4), Willem Dafoe is in talks to join and now Variety reports that Patton Oswalt “will play Oswald “Ozzie” P. Boone, an eccentric artist who designs sculptures, including a steel pendant that the titular clairvoyant hero wears around his neck.”  Production on Odd Thomas is slated to begin next month in New Mexico.

Oswalt will be seen in theaters later this year in Jason Reitman’s Young Adult and the comedy A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas.  He’s also recording a new CD/DVD/Showtime special on May 14th in Seattle.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of Odd Thomas.

Lily Collins was poised to land the female lead in the feature adaptation of Dean Koontz novel Odd Thomas.  In the days since the report, with the upcoming shoot of The Mortal Instruments to still fresh on her mind, Collins was cast as Snow White in The Brothers Grimm: Snow White. And so director Stephen Sommers (G.I. Joe) must look elsewhere for his Stormy Llewellyn.

Variety reports that Addison Timlin (Californication) has emerged from a shortlist that also includes Emma Roberts, Kat Dennings, and Portia Doubleday in addition to Collins.  Stormy is the girlfriend of the titular Thomas (Anton Yelchin), “a short-order cook with clairvoyant abilities who encounters a mysterious man with a link to dark, threatening forces.”  The story is set in a California desert town; Odd Thomas will shoot in Santa Fe, New Mexico with a May 2 start date.  Read the book synopsis after the jump.