I'm not at all familiar with Portia Doubleday (pictured right), so I was a little nervous to learn she had nabbed the part of one of my all time favorite female characters (from a novel): Sheeni Saunders. Those who've read Youth in Revolt know Sheeni quite well, but if you haven't picture every girl you've ever had a crush on combined into one, all-knowing, beautiful piece of work. That's Sheeni. And according to a press release, Doubleday will be joined by Justin Long, Fred Willard, Zach Galifinakis, Erik Knudsen and Mary Kate Place.

All of those people will join Michael Cera, Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi and Jean Smart, among others. Wow. Interesting cast, if I may say so myself. Youth in Revolt tells the simple (yet very complex) story of Nick Twisp, a teenage troublemaker (Cera) with a wacky, white-trashy family who falls desperately in love with the girl of his dreams and goes to great lengths to win her over. Out of the new cast additions, we know Knudsen is playing Twisp's best friend Lefty, Long will play Sheeni's older brother Paul, Willard will play Nick's communist neighbor Mr. Ferguson, Place will play Sheeni's mother and Zach G. will play Jerry, an early (and seedy) boyfriend of Nick's mother (Smart).

I'm a huge, nerdy fan of the original novel written by C.D. Payne, so expect to hear a lot about Youth in Revolt from Cinematical. My fingers are crossed and I wish everyone involved good luck. Production is now underway and I've been told the film will hit theaters this December. Yay!

Did you know this? I'm not exactly sure why, but news about Serious Moonlight isn't really getting released. I posted about the project back in October -- the film was written by the late Adrienne Shelly, is being produced by her widower, and had Cheryl Hines (who co-starred in Waitress) attached to direct. Sure, it's not the biggest selection of names, but after the shock that was Shelly's murder, and the positive reaction to Waitress, one would think that news about the feature would continue to roll in, especially when bigger names signed on.

While reading Lou Lumenick's current post about Meg Ryan, he mentioned the film and its stars -- Kristen Bell and Justin Long. So, I headed over to IMDb, and yes, the cast stars Veronica Mars and the ol' Apple guy, plus Ryan and Timothy Hutton. Did some press release get lost? The film was cast, and is already in post-production!

In our animated future, we can not only anticipate Wall-E robots, Tintin, and dragon taming, but also the fuzzy and dangerous world of wolves. The Hollywood Reporter posts that we're getting a new animated film called Alpha and Omega, and it's got a whole roster of recognizable names attached -- Justin Long, Hayden Panettiere, Christina Ricci, Danny Glover, Larry Miller, and Dennis Hopper.

Alpha and Omega focuses on "two bickering wolves -- one a disciplined, Alpha-bred wolf (Panettiere), and the other a fun-loving, comical Omega wolf (Long) -- who are captured and taken thousands of miles from their home. Determined to rejoin their pack, the two mismatched wolves begin a dangerous trek across unfamiliar terrain, battling the odds, the elements, the bears, and one another -- and finding love along the way." Look out, Milo & Otis! There's a new sheriff in town. It's too soon to tell what this will all shape up like, but at least they cast the leads pretty well. Panettiere is good at being terse and Alpha, while Long is pretty much Omega in human form.

Could Justin Long be the next Bruce Campbell? Yeah, no, but he is going to follow in Bruce's footsteps. As we already know, Sam Raimi is returning to horror with Drag Me to Hell. First Ellen Page was attached, then Alison Lohman replaced her. But what's a good Raimi horror without a leading man? Variety reports that those shoes will be filled by none other than Justin Long, who will play Lohman's boyfriend.

Not too many details about the film are being released, other than that it will focus on a supernatural curse that falls upon Lohman's character, and it's a morality tale. Seeing that the boyfriend isn't the star this time around, Long could be movie-long help, or quick curse fodder. If the latter, maybe he'll follow in girlfriend Drew's footsteps and not make it past the opening. I would say he bites it quickly...if anyone other than Sam and Ivan Raimi were behind it. So, all bets are off.

The big question, however, is: What does Raimi horror look like post-Spider-Man? Back in the day, he had Bruce Campbell and low-budget beauty, but a lot has changed since then. Will it be a blast to the past with some new spark, a solid mixture of past and present, or be an effects extravaganza that even Ash wouldn't recognize? And speaking of Ash, what sort of role will Campbell inevitably get in this flick?

When Christopher Campbell blogged about the upcoming CG-animated film Planet 51 last November, he suggested 3D and a few actors for the lead. Well, the actors are different, but when the film hits screens next year on July 24, it will travel to the third dimension. As for the cast, Variety reports that the voices taking this space adventure are Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, and Seann William Scott.

The Rock leads the cast of voices as the astronaut Chuck Baker. He lands on Planet 51 and thinks he's the first to step onto the surface. Not so, naive space traveling man. He soon discovers "green people who live in an innocent world right out of the 1950s, complete with the paranoia that they will be overrun by alien invaders." Whoops. There is no word on who the rest of the actors will voice, but I'll go out on a limb and say that planet's various greenies.

Now, when Christopher talked about the flick, he mentioned that the dude looked a little like Buzz Lightyear. He's definitely not far off -- Chuck looks like the typical CG lead. It's too bad they couldn't try to change up the look a bit, instead of continuing the goofy white boy look. I know, it's hard to come up with different looks since we all look alike, but as artists, that's their job! Argh... Maybe the next animated flick will mix things up a bit.

The comedy documentary Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show isn't all that wild, and the comedy is sporadic. When it's funny, you may nearly fall out of your seat with laughter. But the movie is about 15 minutes too long -- at least -- and by the end you would like the funny guys to get their butts home so you can do the same. If you're planning to see this movie because you're a huge Vince Vaughn fan, bear in mind that he's not the center of this film, and you'll have to watch a quartet of stand-up comedians at length just to enjoy your favorite actor.

In 2005, Vaughn organized a tour of stand-up comedians and sketch comedy, from Los Angeles through Texas and into Georgia, then veering north to Nashville and ending in Chicago. The "Wild West Comedy Show" consisted primarily of four up-and-coming comedians, plus funny sketches involving Vaughn and any fellow actors or friends he could drag along for the ride. Vaughn's scheme is to bring a raunchy-guy humor to places that he believes are lacking in that type of show, primarily in the South and Midwest.

Since I've never had IFC, I discovered Dinner for Five really late in the game, but it's a pretty cool show. The premise, loosely based on the Algonquin Round Table, is simple: Jon Favreau sits down for dinner with a few celebrity guests and they eat, drink, and talk about life on and off the set. There are a bunch of old eps, featuring names from Bruce Campbell to Saffron Burrows, John Sayles to Jennifer Beals, and that doesn't even begin to cover the people who have popped on the show.

Now IFC reports that the late show is getting on new installment (yay!), which they are calling "a last hurrah," this Friday at 10:30 PM. Jon's final (at least for now) guests are: Vince Vaughn (Reese Witherspoon's worst nightmare), Peter Billingsley (A Christmas Story, and Iron Man executive producer), Justin Long (Live Free or Die Hard), and Keir O'Donnell (Wedding Crashers). So basically, it's pretty much a group of friends getting together.

The best thing -- for a short while, they're airing the episode online, right here, so you don't have to set your digital recorders or cancel those saucy Friday night plans. (Canadian readers: this applies to you as well! Unlike sites like Showtime or MTV, which block out-of-country traffic, the IFC feed works.)

Strange Wilderness is a new comedy starring Steve Zahn as the host of a wilderness television show with plummeting ratings. To increase viewership, he assembles a motley crew and sets out on an expedition to find Bigfoot. The cast includes Jonah Hill, Justin Long, Ashley Scott, Peter Dante, Jeff Garlin, and -- believe it or not -- Ernest Borgnine! The red band trailer for Wilderness just hit the internet. (Need a little incentive to check it out? There's nudity. You're welcome.) Cinematical spoke with two of the film's stars -- Kevin Heffernan (of Broken Lizard fame) and Allen Covert (pretty much every Adam Sandler movie, Grandma's Boy) -- about this film and their careers. First up is Kevin Heffernan...

Cinematical: Who do you play in the film?

Kevin Heffernan: I play a character named Whitaker. When they go out on this trip, they need to hire an animal wrangler. I'm a car mechanic and I have no animal wrangling experience. Basically, I'm just looking for a job. So I go and interview with them and I win the job but I have no knowledge of animals. I don't even like them that much really! It's got this great ensemble cast and some great cameos...

Cinematical: It does have such a great comedy cast, was improvisation encouraged on the set?

KH: Yeah man. The script was so good, I mean it was written by Fred Wolf and Peter Gaulke who have a lot of comedy writing experience, but it was just one of those kind of movies where there's always like six or seven people on the screen. And they left it free for us to do the improv stuff that we all love to do. So there were a lot of people going off, and they had to kind of pull you back to the script a little bit.

Cinematical has just received the first official poster for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (click on the image above for a larger version), the upcoming comedy written by Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan. Do I need to say more, or are you already sold? I mean, if John C. Reilly in a Jim Morrison-like pose doesn't do it for ya, we've got issues to discuss. Essentially, the film will be spoofing all those popular musical biopics, like Walk the Line, etc ..., but I take it the flick will be a major step up from the silly spoofs like Scary Movie and Not Another Teen Movie, etc .. It'll be silly, sure, but check out some of this cast: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Paul Rudd, Justin Long, Jason Schwartzman, Jack Black, just about every popular SNL cast member in recent years and White Striper Jack White as Elvis Presley.

Walk Hard follows the life and times of fictional music legend Dewey Cox (Reilly) who, throughout his turbulent (yet awe-inspiring) career, fathers 22 kids, 14 step-kids, becomes addicted and subsequently kicks every drug known to man, and falls in love with his longtime backup singer Darlene (Fischer). Somewhere along the way, he also makes friends with everyone from The Beatles to Elvis -- and stars in his own 70s Variety Show. As a big fan of everyone involved, I know this movie is going to kick major ass -- how can it not? Directed by Jake Kasdan (who also helmed the very funny Orange County and comes from the same Freaks and Geeks world as Apatow), Walk Hard is set to sing its way into theaters on December 21.

It has been a depressing month. First Scott told me that Jennifer Connelly is just not that into me. And today the Hollywood Reporter informs me that Jennifer Aniston feels the same way. In He's Just Not That Into You, Miss Aniston will play a role just bursting with originality -- "a woman in a long-term relationship with a boyfriend who will not commit to marriage." Aniston joins one of the most attractive casts in recent memory. You've got the previously mentioned Jennifer Connelly, Entourage's "E" Kevin Connolly (that's going to get confusing on set), Bradley Cooper (the jerk boyfriend in Wedding Crashers), Justin Long (who should be commended for not ruining Live Free or Die Hard), Ginnifer Goodwin (the youngest wife on Big Love, I've got a huge crush on her), and Drew Barrymore (you know who Drew Barrymore is, right?).

Barrymore is also a co-producer on the film, which will be directed by Ken Kwapis (director of License to Wed - boo! But also several episodes of The Office - yay!). The script was written by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein (writers of Barrymore's Never Been Kissed, which I enjoyed more than I expected to). It is based on the wildly popular book by ex-Sex and the City writers Liz Tuccillo and Greg Behrendt (if you never saw Behrendt's daytime talk show, you're a luckier person than I). It's good to see Aniston returning to romantic comedy after...oh wait, that's pretty much all she does. She does it well though. After Rumor Has It almost caused me to walk out (and I was on an airplane!), she hit me with the one-two punch of Friends With Money and The Break-Up. I liked both of those a lot. Into You is set in Baltimore and will consist of "interconnecting story arcs dealing with the challenges of reading or misreading human behavior." Interconnecting story arcs set in Baltimore, eh? Any chance we can tie this all in to The Wire somehow? Brilliant as that show is, I always felt it could use a romantic comedy element.