One of the funniest films I saw at SXSW was Jacob Vaughan‘s Milo.  The juvenile comedy centers on a man (Ken Marino) whose stresses at home and at work causes him extraordinary gastric distress, which isn’t helped by the fact that he has a gremlin-like creature living in his colon.  Today, Magnet has announced that they’ve picked up the film for distribution.  Magnet is definitely a good fit for the film, and I assume the company will go their normal route of releasing the film on VOD before giving it a limited theatrical release.  No release date has been announced, but hopefully audiences will get to see the movie later this year.

Hit the jump for the full press release.  Milo also stars Gillian Jacobs, Patrick Warburton, Mary Kay Place, Peter Stormare, and Stephen Root.

Jacob Vaughan‘s Milo is revelatory in multiple ways.  It’s a sly comment on our culture’s obsession with stress and how to relieve it.  It’s an intimate family drama about a man afraid of becoming a father when he was abandoned by his own.  Most of all, Milo proves you can get a surprising amount of comic mileage from an anal demon.  Vaughan’s comedy is one of the most juvenile films I’ve ever seen, but works because of its completely sincerity rather than celebrating its own sense of humor.  As silly as Milo gets, Vaughan and his actors play the proceedings completely straight-faced, and let the comedy shine through where the sun don’t shine.

Earlier this month, we reported on the first wave of SXSW 2013 films, which includes The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Evil Dead.  Today, the full line-up has been announced, and it feels like Sundance all over again when it comes to plenty of unknown films.  The chance of discovering a gem is high, and I look forward to hearing the buzz that arises from some these movies.  There’s also a second chance at festival films I missed like The Act of Killing (from TIFF) and Pit Stop (from Sundance).  I thought Toy’s House would make it in to SXSW, but I’ll see it eventually since it picked up distribution.

Hit the jump for the full line-up.  The 2013 SXSW Film Festival runs from March 8 – 17th.

Two more bits of casting news this evening.  Here they are in brief:

• Yancy Butler, who appeared as Angie D’Amico in Kick-Ass, is set to return in the same role for the Jeff Wadlow-directed sequel.
• Jonathan Daniel Brown (Project X) is set to join the cast of the horror comedy Milo, also starring Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs and Peter Stormare.

Hit the jump for details on both projects.

A bunch of TV stars found their way into the movies and one Hunger Games actor saw the odds turn in his favor. Here’s your big-screen casting round-up:

• Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) will star in independent Canadian comedy Sex and Sunsets.
• Dianna Agron (Glee) will join Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer in Luc Besson’s action-comedy Malavita
• Gillian Jacobs (Community) will co-star in horror-comedy Milo
• The Hunger Games’ Dayo Okeniyi will play in Runner Runner starring Ben Affleck and indie high school drama The Spectacular Now

Hit the jump for more on all four projects.