We’ve got some brief casting news for you this afternoon.  First up, Richard Dreyfuss, Danny Glover, Danny Masterson, and Jon Heder will star in the dark indie comedy Killing Winston Jones.  Per Variety, the plot “centers on a sixth-grade English teacher (Masterson) who’s on a mission to get the newly constructed junior high gymnasium named after his father (Dreyfuss) despite the fact that the person so memorialized must be dead — leading to a bitter contest over the naming rights with his old rival (Glover).”  Joel David Moore, who co-starred in Avatar and previously co-directed the 2007 feature Spiral, will helm Killing Winston Jones.  The production company, RadioactiveGiant, “is planning to release the movie theatrically and across multiple platforms worldwide,” so we can probably expect a VOD release coupled with a limited theatrical release.

Hit the jump for casting news on the psychological thriller, Kristy.

Despite the buzz from last night’s Banksy-directed opening to The Simpsons, animation on Fox is pretty much dominated by Seth MacFarlene. However, Fox has just ordered two animated series outside of their go-to animation creators MacFarlene and Matt Groening as Vulture reports the network has ordered an animated series based on the surprise hit film Napoleon Dynamite and another animated comedy series called Allen Gregory featuring Jonah Hill.

Details on both of these new series can be found after the jump.

A weekly sitcom produced by Will Ferrell (Anchorman) and starring Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and Chris Parnell (the funniest parts of SNL) sounds like an idea that’s too good to be true, right?  Production was set to begin next month, but EW is reporting that Jon Heder has decided to part ways from the as-yet-unnamed Comedy Central series over “creative differences” about the character.  Keep in mind that Heder willingly played a helmet-wearing, booger-eating, mentally handicapped paperboy alongside Rob Schneider in The Benchwarmers.  Hopefully, Heder’s departure isn’t a sign of the show’s quality but combined with Comedy Central’s checkered past of original series, I’m a little wary.

The series is reportedly about a man who is forced to move back in with his parents.  As we reported a couple weeks ago, Horatio Sanz, who co-starred with Parnell and Ferrell on SNL, is also attached to the project.  And though I would personally like to see them play the parents, this seems unlikely at best.

Two former Saturday Night Live stars will join with Napoleon Dynamite in a new Comedy Central sitcom. Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz have been cast along with Jon Heder in an untitled sitcom being produced by Gary Sanchez Productions (the Will Ferrell/Adam McKay company). Shooting starts March 31 in New York and the show will premiere in the third quarter.

“Anyone in the comedy world knows that Horatio Sanz and Chris Parnell are two of the funniest guys around,” Adam McKay told Variety. Both of them were strong presences on SNL for several years, crafting original characters as well as playing key supporting roles. More recently, they’ve been relegated to those supporting roles in both TV and film. However, any connection to SNL gives an actor a much higher comedy IQ so it’s a safe bet that this show will be funny enough to warrant a DVR’d episode or two.

Hit the jump to read the official plot description of the show.

Who says all is fair in love and Rome? Kristen Bell stars in director Mark Steven Johnson’s new romcom, When in Rome, as an ambitious young New Yorker disillusioned with romance. On a whirlwind trip to Rome to attend her sister’s wedding and after one too many glasses of champagne, she ends up wading through a fountain of love, gathering coins left there by people who wished for love.

Funny men Jon Heder, Will Arnett, Dax Shepard and Danny Devito play a street magician, an adoring painter, a narcissistic model, and a sausage magnate who chase after her heart when their passion is inexplicably ignited by her gesture. But when a charming reporter (Josh Duhamel) shows up to compete for her romantic attention, she starts to wonder if his love might just be the real thing.

We sat down with Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel to talk about their new movie, When in Rome. After the jump you can read what they had to tell us about their characters, the perils of physical comedy, and how they went about capturing the right rhythm for a romantic relationship. Kristen also updated us on the status of Veronica Mars:

We have three pieces of casting news for you today in one handy article.  Variety reports that Paul Dano has signed on to co-star with Jon Heder in the upcoming indie drama For Ellen. Written and directed by So Young Kim (In Between Days), the film “centers on a struggling indie rocker who, after nearly wrecking his car during an overnight long-distance drive, arrives in a small Midwestern town to deal with his impending divorce.”  Dano will next be seen starring along side Kevin Kline in The Extra Man, which will debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Hit the jump to learn about Gerard Butler in Machine Gun Preacher and Johnny Depp and Salma Hayek in Wild Roses, Tender Roses.

The first trailer for director Mark Steven Johnson’s “When in Rome” has been released and it’s after the jump. The film stars Kristen Bell and it’s a romantic comedy that mixes in the magic angle. Unfortunately, based on the trailer, they didn’t use enough magic as I didn’t find anything funny or romantic. See for yourself after the jump:

“Napoleon Dynamite’s” Jon Heder will star in a big screen adaptation of the sci-fi novel “Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede”.  Hit the jump for plot details (becauset the title didn’t give it all away). [Update: /Film has posted concept art for the film which you can see a smaller version of after the jump.]