Casting is underway on the sequel to Disney’s The Muppets, and Modern Family star Ty Burrell is the first actor to officially sign on to the project.  We previously heard that Christoph Waltz was in talks to play an Interpol agent in the Europe-set follow-up, but the actor’s schedule forced him to drop out of the running.  Heat Vision reports that Burrell will now take over the role, with The Muppets director James Bobin returning to direct from a script he co-wrote with Nicholas Stoller.

Plot details are under wraps, but we know that the pic is a caper and production is set to begin early next year in London.  In addition to Burrell’s Interpol agent, the story also involves a Russian Femme Fatale.  We should hear more casting news soon as the production’s start date looms closer.  The untitled Muppets sequel is set for release on December 20, 2013.

Today, DreamWorks Animation presented a sneak peek at the three films set for release in 2013: The Croods, Turbo and Mr. Peabody & Sherman. While the films are in varying stages of completeness, clips from each movie were screened to give the audience a sense of tone, story and aesthetics. Not familiar with the movies in question? Here’s a look at the relevant directors and voice casts:

• The Croods – Directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, and featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman and Clark Duke, The Croods opens March 22, 2013 in 3D.
• Turbo – Directed by David Soren and featuring a voice cast including Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Peña, Luis Guzman, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Kurtwood Smith, Snoop Dogg and Samuel L. Jackson, Turbo opens July 19, 2013 in 3D.
• Mr. Peabody & Sherman – Directed by Rob Minkoff and featuring the voices of Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, Allison Janney, Stephen Colbert, Stephen Tobolowsky, Mel Brooks, Leslie Mann and Stanley Tucci, Mr. Peabody & Sherman opens November 1, 2013 in 3D.

Hit the jump for a recap of the sneak peeks.

Some (un)casting news today.  Check out the highlights below:

• Chris Hemsworth (Thor) is reportedly out of American Assassin, the CBS Films’ adaptation of the Vince Flynn novel.  A source cited scheduling conflicts.
• Ty Burrell (Modern Family) will join Adventureland duo Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins as Hader’s lover.
• Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) is in consideration for Our Kind of Traitor, an adaptation of the John le Carre novel. Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and Jessica Chastain (Lawless) are also rumored.

Hit the jump for more on each project. 

The social satire Butter is set in the cutthroat world of professional butter carving. Iowa’s long-reigning champion butter carver Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) has just retired, which doesn’t sit well with his obsessively ambitious wife Laura (Jennifer Garner), who decides to enter the competition herself, vowing to do whatever it takes to win. From director Jim Field Smith and screenwriter Jason Micallef, the film also stars Olivia Wilde, Alicia Silverstone, Rob Corddry, Ashley Greene, Kristen Schaal, Phyllis Smith, Yara Shahidi and Hugh Jackman.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, actor Ty Burrell talked about his first reaction to the script, what made him decide to sign on, and how much fun it was to work with Jennifer Garner. He also talked about what the recent Emmy win for Modern Family means to him, how the process of making the show has changed over the years, and voicing the title character for the animated feature Mr. Peabody & Sherman, about a young boy and his dog, that happens to have a genius-level IQ, who spring into action when their time-travel machine is stolen and history begins to be changed. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

The trailer for the long-delayed comedy Butter has gone online.  The film premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, but was pushed back from March 2012 to October in order to capitalize on the upcoming Presidential election (even though it has nothing to do with this year’s election).  I was eagerly anticipating the flick, but when I saw it at TIFF, it turned out to be a massive disappointment.  The movie has several different tones, and has no idea how to fully develop any of them.  The plot is supposed to be a satire of the 2008 Democratic primary where a wronged spouse (Jennifer Garner) attempts to win her husband’s (Ty Burrell) butter-carving title only to meet stiff competition from a young black girl named Destiny (Yara Shahidi).  The trailer briefly touches on the political bit, but plays more towards the delightful dark comedy of the film while hiding all the saccharine stuff.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Olivia Wilde, Rob Corddry, Alicia Silverstone, Ashley Greene, and Hugh Jackman.  Butter opens October 5th.

The indie comedy Goats, based on Mark Poirier’s best-selling novel, tells the story of Ellis (Graham Phillips), a 15-year-old looking to find his place among his eccentric family.  His mom (Vera Farmiga) is a New Age hippie that spends all of her time working on self-help rituals with her hustler boyfriend (Justin Kirk), while his dad (Ty Burrell) left home years ago and is more focused on his new wife (Keri Russell) and family.  And then, there’s Goat Man (David Duchovny), the goat-herding sage who has lived in their pool house since Ellis was a child, teaching him the meaning of expanding one’s mind.

At the film’s press day, actor Graham Phillips spoke to Collider for this exclusive interview about the long road to getting this film made (including the role of Goat Man being recast with Kevin Kline, at one point), how much fun he had exploring a teenaged character with so much substance, the biggest challenges in working with the goats, what it’s been like to grow up with his character on the CBS drama series The Good Wife, why he wants to be picky about the roles he takes, and his desire to also write and direct.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

The first trailer for the indie comedy Goats has landed online.  Directed by Christopher Neil,  the film is based on the novel of the same name by Mark Jude Poirier and tells the coming of age story of a 15-year-old boy (Graham Phillips) who moves from his new age mother’s (Vera Farmiga) South-Western home to an East Coast prep school where his estranged father (Ty Burrell) was once a star student.  The trailer isn’t particularly funny, and David Duchovy is quite strange as the goat-llving beau of Farmiga’s character.  Matt caught the film earlier this year at Sundance and wasn’t a big fan (you can read his review here).

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Keri Russell, Ty Burell and Justin Kirk.  Goats opens on August 10th.

Today’s poster round-up features comedy, action and horror.  What more could you want?

• The Campaign, starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as political opponents, opens August 10th.
• Goats, based on the Mark Jude Poirier novel and starring David Duchovny and Vera Farmiga, also opens August 10th.
• Premium Rush, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bike messenger with a volatile delivery, opens August 24th.
• The Tall Man, a horror mystery starring Jessica Biel and Jodelle Ferland, opens August 31st.

Hit the jump to check out the posters and synopses.

Casting news updates at a glance:

• Stephen Colbert (Monsters vs Aliens) and Allison Janney (Phineas and Ferb) have been cast in the DreamWorks animated production of Mr. Peabody and Sherman, starring Ty Burrell (Modern Family) and Max Charles (The Amazing Spider-Man) voicing the title roles.
• Ian McShane (Snow White and the Huntsman) will join Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead), Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation) and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) in dance-off comedy, Cuban Fury.

Hit the jump for more.

DreamWorks Animation has been working on a 3D animated iteration of the classic “dog and his pet boy” cartoon Mr. Peabody and Sherman for a few years now, but the first image from the feature film has now surfaced.  The original cartoon first appeared as part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, and DreamWorks Animation’s version boasts the voice talent of Ty Burrell (Modern Family) as the dog and Max Charles (The Amazing Spider-Man) as the boy.  The story finds Peabody’s “pet boy”using the genius dog’s time machine without permission, thus sending events in history spiraling out of control.

Hit the jump to check out the first image of DreamWorks-rendered Mr. Peabody and Sherman.  The film opens in 3D on March 14^th, 2014.

The classic “dog and his pet boy” cartoon that appeared as part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show will be appearing in 3D theaters as DreamWorks Animation’s Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Voicing the world’s smartest dog and his naive companion will be, respectively, Ty Burrell (Modern Family) and Max Charles (The Amazing Spider-Man). Rob Minkoff (The Lion King) will direct from a script by Craig Wright (Six Feet Under) which follows the duo as they attempt to restore order to historical events after Sherman uses Mr. Peabody’s time machine without permission. The voice of Mr. Peabody was originally supposed to go to Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), but I find Burrell to be an equally fitting personality for the inquisitive canine. Hit the jump for more on Mr. Peabody and Sherman, which is schedule to release on March 14, 2014.

Saoirse Ronan is in talks to star in Order of Seven, an action adventure tale based loosely on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. If you’re a fan of Snow White, you’ll have your pick between Relativity Media’s frivolous take Mirror Mirror directed by Tarsem Singh and Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman, directed by Rupert Sanders. Disney, oddly enough, is late to the game with their submission even though the project began development ten years ago.

In other casting news, Ty Burrell has joined the cast of the Jackie Brown prequel, Switch along with John Hawkes and Yasiin Bey. Hit the jump for much more on Ronan and Burrell’s roles and respective projects.

I don’t really care if teenagers learn life lessons anymore.  The coming-of-age genre has become as stolid as the rom-com, but the coming-of-age movies still get a pass because they’re done under the auspices of being indie and artistic.  Goats makes an odd trade-off for the genre.  The movie doesn’t pack its main character full of quirks, but instead of growing as a person, he goes from a mostly-boring kid to a completely-boring kid.  All the quirks are for the one-dimensional characters who have almost no impact on his life.  The only fascinating thing about Goats is the values it preaches.

Today, the 2012 Sundance Film Festival announced their premieres line-up. Along with the announcement comes a boat load of images from the films set to be showcased at the fest. After the jump we’ve got images and syonpses from Celeste and Jesse Forever (starring Andy Samberg, Rashida Jones, and Elijah Wood), Lay the Favorite (starring Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis, and Catherine Zeta-Jones), GOATS (starring David Duchovny, Vera Farmiga, and Ty Burrell), and Shadow Dancer (starring Andrea Riseborough, Gillian Anderson, and Clive Owen).

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 19 – 29th.

Tonight was the 63rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards and the winner’s list included some great names.  Perhaps the best win of the night was Peter Dinklage picking up Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Game of Thrones.  Not far behind was Kyle Chandler finally picking up an Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama Series for the final season of Friday Night Lights (the show also picked up an Emmy for Best Writing in a Drama Series).  Martin Scorsese picked up an award for his direction of Boardwalk Empire‘s pilot episode, and ubiquitous character actor Margo Martindale won Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Mags Bennett on FX’s Justified.

The top awards for Best Drama, Best Comedy, and Best Variety, Music or Comedy Series went to last year’s winners Mad Men, Modern Family, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, respectively.  Best Miniseries or TV Movie was awarded to  PBS’ Downtown Abbey while CBS’ The Amazing Race picked up another Emmy for Best Reality-Competition Program.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners.