Cinematical

It's been quite awhile since we first and last heard about Adam McKay's Step Brothers, an R-rated comedy that will reunite the director's Talladega Nights duo, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly (cementing Reilly's placement in the "Frat Pack") and will be overseen by that film's producers, Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller. Joining the leads, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is Adam Scott, who recently played the male nurse in Apatow's Knocked Up and Oscar-winner Mary Steenburgen, who co-starred with Ferrell in Elf.

In Step Brothers, Ferrell and Reilly play -- what a shocker -- immature guys who become stepbrothers and best friends when their parents marry. Scott has been cast as Ferrell's younger, more successful brother and Steenburgen is their mom. Still no word on who plays Reilly's father, who I assume will be marrying Steenburgen's character. Other cast members reportedly include Andrea Savage (Comedy Central's Dog Bites Man) as Ferrell's therapist, and someone named Katherine Hahn (could it be Knocked Up costumer Catherine Hahn?) as Adam Scott's character's wife.

Steenburgen seems way too young to play mother to Will Ferrell, who is only 14 years her junior, but this won't be the first time such close-age parental casting has occurred (the craziest was Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey -- two years apart -- in The Manchurian Candidate). Still, the actress is one of my favorite motherly actresses, mainly thanks to Parenthood and even Back to the Future III -- her schoolmarm character seems like a mom even if she isn't, at least not until the animated series. Now if Apatow could just get her Parenthood husband, Steve Martin, to play Ferrell's step-dad, I could really get behind this movie. Apatow could be just the guy to re-boost Martin's once-funny career.