Have you read Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates? Huh? You have? Then why the hell haven't you told me about it? What's your problem, anyway? And where has this book been all my life?

There's a movie version of Revolutionary Road on the way, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and directed by Sam Mendes. It's set to be released at Christmastime, and is widely expected to be a major player in the Oscar race. But here I have to betray this column's reason for being. F*** the movie. Read the book.

Published in 1961, Yates's first novel was more acclaimed than popular. It is a merciless, intense and pitch-black social satire – funny only in the most uncomfortable way, like being cleverly mocked by someone who sees clean through to your soul. The jacket pitches it as being about "the opulent desolation of the American suburbs," but Revolutionary Road is not another of those books that merely mocks the empty lives of well-to-do suburbanites. It's about our attitudes toward life and love and each other. Almost a half-century after it was published, it contains as much devastating insight into human nature as just about anything else I've ever read.

Update: Cinematical was informed that the film still does not have a title, though we imagine one will be announced soon. See full (and accurate) press release after the jump.

Since news first broke about Sam Mendes making the leap to comedy with John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, I've become awfully curious to see if the man famous for heavy subject matter can pull off a straight rom-com. Coming Soon has received a press announcement from the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tuscon, Arizona, and according to them, the spa has been chosen as one of the locations for the road flick. More importantly, we now know that the film is going by the slightly awkward title of Farlanders.

McSweeney's founder Dave Eggers co-wrote the script with his wife, Vendela Vida, and the story centers on an expectant couple played by Krasinski (sporting some much-maligned facial hair) and Rudolph as they travel the US looking for the perfect place to start their family. The film has a big ensemble cast to play the various 'characters' our couple will meet along the way -- including some very funny women like Catherine O'Hara, Cheryl Hines, and Allison Janney.

Production began back in April, and according to the release, the Arizona shoot will begin in June. Some of the other locations include Colorado, Connecticut, and Florida. There is no official release date, so I guess I'll have plenty of time to get used to that title.

Farlanders The Untitled Sam Mendes Comedy is due to arrive in theaters in 2009.

Here's another casting switch-up for you. Variety reports that not even a month after Toni Collette signed on for a role in Sam Mendes' untitled "relationship comedy,"* she's out and Maggie Pinch Hitter Gyllenhaal is in. The actress dropped the gig when delays messed up the schedule, so Maggie stepped up to the plate. First she replaces Katie Holmes, and now, Collette. Maybe she should also add: "suitable substitution for just about any actress" to her resume. My favorite Satan-worshipping makeup artist has come a long way!

The film focuses on a couple who decide to travel across the US, trying to find a perfect place to hunker down and raise their family. Collette was set to play their friend, a university professor who thinks their child will be dysfunctional no matter where they live. Variety ups the description by saying that she's a bohemian prof who is an old friend of John Krasinski's character. (Maya Rudolph is playing his wife.)

In its vagueness, it doesn't sound like the best plot I've ever heard, but I imagine that it could make for some entertaining cinema between the eye of Sam Mendes and the words of Vendela Vida and Dave Eggers. As for Gyllenhaal, I like seeing her continue to expand her diverse portfolio of roles. Production is currently under way in Connecticut.

*"Relationship comedy" keeps getting used to describe this film. Are the powers that be trying their darnedest to keep people from calling it a romcom?

Great day in the morning! Two of my favorite actors on the planet are joining the cast of Sam Mendes' increasingly promising 2009 comedy, which has yet to find a title. According to a Focus Features press release that landed in my inbox, Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara will round out an ensemble that already includes John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Toni Colette, Cheryl Hines and Allison Janney. The screenplay was co-written by McSweeney's founder and Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius author Dave Eggers and novelist Vendela Vida. The film "follows the journey of an expectant couple as they travel the U.S. in search of a place to put down roots and raise a family."

O'Hara is probably the funniest woman on the planet, and Daniels can bring heart and humanity to any film, so this is good news indeed. With Christopher Guest taking a break from making the movies that have been her bread and butter over the years, O'Hara can use the high-profile work; her only screen appearance this year or last has been in the underrated Penelope.

Mendes also has the DiCaprio-Winslet reunion movie Revolutionary Road in the works -- it will headline the 2008 Oscar season -- but this new project will be his first stab at comedy. Eggers co-wrote the adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are with Spike Jonze, which should finally see the light of day next year as well.

Combining the words Allison Janney with indie comedy is usually music to my ears. In the last few years alone, she's rocked roles like Allie Stiffle in Chumscrubber and Bren MacGuff in Juno. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that she's signing on for two bigger-budget roles -- one that will have her working with Sam Mendes, and the other that will have her directed by Brian Robbins. Well, at least one should be completely excellent.

For Mendes, she's taking a role in his upcoming comedy, which is currently and tentatively titled This Must Be the Place. Janney will play "a loud, brassy, decidedly un-PC woman who admittedly has a few screws loose." (Could Mendes have cast that any better?) "She reunites with a former employee in Phoenix, where the expectant mother/employer (Maya Rudolph) begins a tour of the country with her husband (John Krasinski) to find the best place to raise their child."

Toni Collette has joined the cast of the still-untitled Sam Mendes relationship film -- you know, the one starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, and being penned by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Collette will be playing a college professor and close friend of the young couple -- two folks who are scouring the country for a place to settle and raise their child, and Collette's character feels that it'll be dysfunctional no matter where they end up. Smart lady!

The movie pairs Collette up again with Big Beach producers Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf, who produced Little Miss Sunshine. Focus is hoping to capture a bit of that magic, since they gave up their claim on that enormous indie hit.

John Krasinski has had a bit of a rough start transitioning his TV career into a movie career. For starters, have you seen License to Wed? Luckily for my favorite office drone, his upcoming projects look a lot more promising. Variety reports that Krasinski, SNL's Maya Rudolph, and Cheryl Hines have signed to star in Sam Mendes' new untitled comedy. News of the film first appeared back in January, and just over a month later, three top-notch comedians have signed on for the film. That has got to be a good sign, right?

Celebrity novelist Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida (author of Girls of the Verge and Egger's wife) wrote the script for the romantic comedy. Eggers made his name with his memoir, Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, but is still relatively new to the screenwriting trade. In the film, Krasinski and Rudolph will play an expectant couple traveling around the country looking for a place to settle down and start a family.

If you have ever read anything written by Eggers or the McSweeney's 'brand' then you know that this slight premise is just the kind of story you would expect. Knowing Egger's penchant for personal touches, I'm sure some of the details of his life with his own family found their way into the script. The production is expected to start shooting this April in Connecticut, and the film is set for release in 2009.

American Beauty had its comedy, but it was a pretty dark film. After that came Road to Perdition, which jumped into the crime drama vein. Then there was Jarhead. It was all sorts of amusing to see Jake Gyllenhaal gyrate while clothed in nothing more than two Santa hats, but the rest was pretty serious. And we've still got a documentary, Revolutionary Road, and Middlemarch on the way. It's no wonder that Variety is reporting that director Sam Mendes is now running towards comedy!

He has signed on to direct a still-untitled "contemporary comedy" for Focus Features this spring. The film was written by McSweeney's head honcho, and the brain behind A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers and his wife Vendela Vida (who edits The Believer and wrote Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name). As Variety describes it, the flick "follows a young couple's journey around the U.S. as they search for somewhere to put down roots and raise the baby they are expecting." Ah, there's nothing like getting impregnated and then trying to find out where you want to live. Unfortunately, there's no word on the cast yet (Mrs. Mendes, perhaps??), but as soon as we hear it, we'll let you know.

After Jack succumbed to the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean, did you ever think you'd get to see him reunited with Rose? (Aside from that weird ending, I mean). Well, ten years after Titanic, you can now at least see Leo reunited with Kate in this new still from the upcoming movie Revolutionary Road. We've already shown you some photos from the set of the movie, but this is the first in which the actor and actress are seen together. And isn't it wonderful? So, they don't really look anything like Jack and Rose anymore, and so, the time period is 40 years later -- just seeing those kids embracing brings tears to my eyes. Of course, there isn't much going on in the photograph other than Leo and Kate holding each other (are they dancing?). Someone could have just taken a pic of the actors in downtime sharing a hug and we'd have the same effect.

Directed by Kate's husband, Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road tells of a bored, suburban married couple who move to France in order to find new fulfillment in life. Sounds kinda like Mendes' American Beauty mixed with Do Not Disturb. The script is by Justin Haythe, who penned the underrated Robert Redford movie The Clearing, and it is based on the novel from Richard Yates, co-writer of the 1969 war movie The Bridge at Remagen. In addition to reuniting Les o and Kate, the film also reunites the two with fellow Titanic star Kathy Bates. Kate also gets to work with her husband for the first time and she again gets to work with child actor Ty Simkins, who we last saw in Little Children as Patrick Wilson's son -- this time he plays Kate's (and Leo's) son. Revolutionary Road doesn't hit theaters for another 17 months, so hopefully the single photo satisfies you for awhile.

The pictures, they are a-rolling in. On Tuesday, Erik Davis shared the first peeks of Kate Winslet on the set of Revolutionary Road -- the film notable not only because it's Kate, but because it is reuniting her with Leonardo DiCaprio under the helming eye of Mr. Winslet, Sam Mendes. The images showed the actress with a head full of curly hair and a spunky, retro white dress. Now Just Jared has got some more clips of Kate as well as the first look at Leo, in all his dapper glory. He's got that Frank Abagnale Jr. look going on, and I'm sure many an anti-smoking in film activist will be thrilled that he's puffing away.

Unfortunately, mens fashions haven't changed drastically over the last century, so there's not much to his pictures -- especially since this isn't the first time he's put on some retro attire. As for Kate, it's looking like the stylists weren't too big on her curly hair. JJ's pictures have the same dress, shoes and gloves (with a white clutch added), but these images show her hair neatly pulled back. Or, maybe her character never changes, and she just wears the same white dress every day -- having a miraculous talent in keeping it clean, or who scrubs at it furiously each night as her husband Frank sleeps? I'm hoping they don't have her raising kids in a perfect attire. That's too Donna Reed for me. And just to recap: the movie is about a suburban couple bored with their mundane life who want to move their family to France to spice things up. The flick is currently filming in the Big Apple.