Could Shawn Levy's  Night at the Museum have a more packed cast? Man alive. In addition to star Ben Stiller, the movie's got Hollywood legends Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney, goddess Carla Gugino, and the recently-added Robin Williams, who will get to fulfill the dream we all have of playing Teddy Roosevelt. Now Levy has revealed that Ricky Gervais has also come on board, apparently to repay Stiller for his appearance on Gervais' Extras. Gervais will play the director of New York's Museum of Natural History, a character who, according to Levy, is "very uptight."

Just the thought of Gervais playing someone uptight is funny - this movie has so much potential that it's sort of scary to think about what a freaking disaster it could turn into. I mean, let's keep in mind that it's mixing live action with CG work, and is about "an ancient curse that causes the animals and insects on display to come to life and wreak havoc." Finding the right tone for this one just seems like it's going to be really, really hard.

The Ben Stiller comedy Night at the Museum has been in the news a lot lately: just the other day, old school studs Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney agreed to make their triumphant returns to the big screen in the film, and now yet another big name has been added to the cast. It was announced today that Robin Williams will appear in the film as - wait for it - Teddy Freakin Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt! (Seriously though - there's no way Roosevelt was that hairy. Williams just might have to revisit the full-body shave he got in Hook.)

It turns out that TR founded the American Museum of Natural History (where the movie is set), so naturally there's a display there featuring him. And, when the movie's crazy, magical medallion starts bringing stuff to life, Roosevelt is one of the lucky affectees. Needless to say, the role should allow Williams to perform at his most manic level, and to talk a lot about carrying a big stick. That, combined with getting to see him wearing a neat little TR-style mustache, might just make the movie worth seeing, regardless of actual quality.

Shawn Levy's Night at the Museum (a "live-action/computer-animated comedy" about a curse that brings the creatures in a natural history museum to life) got off to a rocky start, with star Ben Stiller allegedly refusing to appear in the movie if it was shot in Montreal. Now, though, things are settling down, and the movie is preparing to start shooting next month (in Vancouver, in case you were wondering).

Just added to the cast - which, in addition to Stiller, already includes the criminally under appreciated Carla Gugino - are two men who know their way around a movie set: Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney. Van Dyke, who hasn't appeared on the big screen since 1990's Dick Tracy (speaking of under appreciated), will play a long-time museum guard who sees a "magical pharaoh's tablet" (found by Stiller's character) as his key to perpetual youth. Along with sidekick Rooney, he sets out to steal the tablet and, presumably, crazy accidental magic things result.

Hopefully the fact that Van Dyke and Rooney (who has been away from the movies since Babe: Pig in the City) decided to appear in this film means that it's going to be really great, and not that they were both offered so much money that they don't care if the screenplay sucks. Hopefully.