Here's a whole bunch of comedy-laden manly news for you, courtesy of Variety:

• Recognize the dude to the right? Yes, that's the late Chris Farley's younger brother. Kevin Farley had bit parts in his brother's movies, and since then, has found work in gigs that include The Waterboy, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and Blonde and Blonder. Now he's getting Christmasy -- he's landed a lead role in David Zucker's upcoming satire An American Carol, playing a character named Michael Malone.
• And Kevin isn't the only brother with casting news today. Nate Corddry, brother, of course, of Rob, has nabbed not one, but two roles that have him looking for the truth. He's got a gig in Ricky Gervais' This Side of Truth, plus a part in The Ugly Truth -- that whole Katherine Heigl v. a chauvinist Gerard Butler flick. His acting work includes the voice of Seides in Arthur and the Invisibles Minimoys, plus his gig as Tom Jeter in Studio 60 and Calvin in The Nanny Diaries.
• Last up is the old-school Keith Carradine. He's going to go a little Heston/Nugent and play a big NRA supporter and reverend in the upcoming film Driving Lessons -- the film about the woman whose memory loss gives everyone a new outlook on life. Throwing a gun-toting religious man into the mix should make things interesting, and I imagine he'll be connected to Max Thieriot's "religious, right-wing teenage son."

With this latest bit of information, I can't say that my hopes are any higher for the indie satire, An American Carol, which seems to now be called, simply, American Carol. In February, I posted about the film that's coming our way from David Zucker and Myrna Sokoloff. I noted that Zucker has classics like Airplane! under his belt, as well as stinkers like some Scary Movie sequels.

Kelsey Grammer is starring as a different sort of Scrooge -- one entrenched in current American culture. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that country star Trace Adkins has signed on to get ghostly in the project, which is also boasting cameos by Jon Voight, Leslie Nielsen, and Dennis Hopper. It's not Trace's involvement that has me unimpressed. It's this description: "The singer will play the Spirit of Christmas Future (aka the Grim Reaper), who uses his musical abilities to help Scrooge avoid a tragic end."

Yes -- once again, Kelsey Grammer will play Scrooge. And no, I'm not talking about Frasier, but rather the bonafide holiday sourpuss. However, it's not going to be your everyday Dickens. Variety reports that the actor has signed on to play a modern-day Ebenezer Scrooge in the indie satire An American Carol, which will take on current American culture -- "particularly Hollywood." (Will menace-to-the-road Britney run over Tiny Tim or something?) The man behind all of this is David Zucker; he will direct the comedy from a script written with Myrna Sokoloff.

Production is scheduled to begin on the 28th, which might have made me giddy for casting announcements and details 15 years ago, but not so much now. Zucker is one of those guys who makes me buy into that whole "selling your soul for success" idea. Now, I'm not trying to insinuate that he's some devil worshipper or anything, but it's amazing how many directors of funny, classic films take nosedives or head down failing comedic mountains. How do you lose that much of your funny? Is it just that comedy success is luck rather than having a firm grip on how to be funny and satirical?

Zucker had some biggies at the beginning -- like the classic, Airplane! In the next decade, he had the Naked Guns, and now we get My Boss's Daughter and some Scary Movie sequels. So far, it sounds like a crapshoot.

At the very least, it can spawn a sequel: An American Carol: Scrooge Goes West.