Two casting notices tonight:

• Spartacus: War of the Damned star Liam McIntyre will cross the bridge from Roman to Greek mythology to co-star in Hercules 3D, directed by Renny Harlin (12 Rounds).  Kellan Lutz (Twilight) stars as the titular demigod.
• Naomi Watts is in talks to star alongside Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, and Chris O’Dowd in St. Vincent De Van Nuys, the feature directorial debut of Ted Melfi.

More on both projects after the break.

Three breakout comedy stars have added new projects to their rosters:

• Dave Franco (21 Jump Street) and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad) were just added to the impressive cast of Townies, also featuring Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, and possibly Rose Byrne.  The comedy will be directed by Nicholas Stoller (The Five-Year Engagement).

• Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) is in talks to join Melissa McCarthy and Bill Murray in Ted Melfi’s St. Vincent De Van Nuys  After impressive turns with Girls and This is 40, this would see him re-teaming with his Bridesmaids costar McCarthy.

Hit the jump for more on each casting.

Quite the comedy pairing may soon be taking place on the film St. Vincent De Van Nuys.  The Black List script by Ted Melfi has been quite the coveted property over the past few years, and became even more attractive when Bill Murray signed on for the lead role last summer.  The pic centers on a cantankerous war veteran with a penchant for drinking, gambling, and prostitutes who forms an unlikely friendship with his 12-year-old next door neighbor, a young boy whose parents are going through a divorce.

The Weinstein Company picked the project up last fall, and the film’s female lead—the role of the boy’s mother—has been sought after by a number of comic actresses.  Now it looks like the part has been set, as Melissa McCarthy is expected to land the gig.  Hit the jump for more.

Two Black List-approved scripts found studio homes today:

• The Weinstein Company is in final negotiations to finance and distribute St. Vincent De Van Nuys, which stars Bill Murray as a war veteran who has taken to such hobbies as drinking and gambling in retirement before befriending a 12-year-old neighbor.
• Silver Pictures has acquired the Andrew Baldwin script The Outsider, set in post-WWII Japan in the Yakuza underworld.  Tom Hardy is rumored for the lead role.

Hit the jump for details on both projects.

With Bill Murray’s film Hyde Park on the Hudson debuting later this year, the comedian has reportedly turned his attention to the 2011 Black List script, St. Vincent De Van Nuys.  The Ted Melfi script, which garnered as many votes as Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, centers on a 12-year-old boy whose parents are going through a divorce.  He then forms an unlikely friendship with the retiree next door (Murray), a war veteran who goes from leading a life of drinking, gambling and prostitutes to one of an unlikely mentorship.  Jack Nicholson had previously been reported as potentially attached to the project.  Now, Variety reports that Murray is currently in negotiations with Twentieth Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment.

Each year, Hollywood releases “The Black List.” The list is a compilation of the “best” unproduced scripts making the rounds of Hollywood, as voted on by hundreds of film executives. Past scripts that have made their way to the list include Diablo Cody’s Juno and Aaron Sorkin‘s The Social Network. This year, topping the list is Graham Moore’s script for the Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game. Turning was a mathematician and codebreaker during World War II who was criminally prosecuted for his homosexuality, after which he elected chemical castration over prison, and eventually ended his own life.

The Imitation Game has been in the works for a while, and last we heard Warner Bros. was keen on getting Harry Potter director David Yates to take the helm. Leonardo DiCaprio is also said to have taken a liking to the role of Turing. Also appearing on the list is Matt Damon’s planned directorial debut Father Daughter Time and Chewie, which tells the behind-the-scenes story of Star Wars from the perspective of Peter Mayhew. Hit the jump to peruse the entire list, which includes two Pinocchio projects, a movie about catching a screening of Jurassic Park, and zombies!