Some casting news for you today.  Here’s the pertinent info:

• Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers) has been cast in the starring role of The Days of Mary, a re-imagining of the Oscar-winning Federico Felllini film, Nights of Cabiria.
• Ashley Hinshaw (Chronicle) and Kim Shaw (She’s Out of My League) will play the wives of racecar drivers Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwan in Snake & Mongoose.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

On February 2^nd, the dramedy series I Just Want My Pants Back, executive produced by Doug Liman (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Identity, Go, Swingers), premieres on MTV. A funny, honest portrayal of friendships and relationships among a group of 20-something friends in Brooklyn, it tells the story of Jason Strider (Peter Vack), his best friend Tina (Kim Shaw), and Eric (Jordan Carlos) and Stacey (Elisabeth Hower). When a one night stand steals Jason’s heart and his pants, he begins a quest to get his beloved jeans back, and hopefully find the girl, while growing up along the way.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, Doug Liman talked about how and when he got involved with I Just Want My Pants Back, what makes MTV the perfect home for the show, the challenge of finding a talented and attractive cast of actors who was relatively unknown, and that he’s confidant they’ll get a Season 2 because he feels like the audience is going to have the same emotional response to the characters that he does. He also talked about the challenge of balancing producing the TV show with his feature film career as a director, how he’s hoping All You Need Is Kill (starring Tom Cruise) will be his next film, and that he plans to make Everest (about George Mallory and his three attempts in the early 1920′s to become the first man to climb the world’s highest mountain), after that. Check out what he had to say after the jump.