* I've never seen a single moment of Patton Oswalt's stand-up act, but as an actor he's someone I've always found to be a great addition to any cast. He's my favorite character on the Showtime series, The United States of Tara
, and his turn as an obsessed football fanatic in 2009's Big Fan 
was one of the strongest of that year. Now he's set to join the cast of Stephen Sommers' Odd Thomas
, based on the Dean Koontz novel about a short order cook(Anton Yelchin) with the ability to sense darkness and evil. According to Variety, Oswalt will play "Ozzie" P. Boone, an eccentric artist and friend to the title character.* Good to see that Robert Zemeckis is landing on his feet. Not so good to see that the cast of Gnomeo and Juliet
have finally turned on us. Sony has scooped up the rights to Chuck Sambuchino's book, How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack: Defend Yourself When the Lawn Warriors Strike (And They Will)
. The plan is to do the film in a live-action/animation style perfect to Zemeckis's strengths, however Variety notes that he's only on board as a producer at this time. I expect that will change at some point. * Michael C. Hall has been the central figure in two of my favorite TV shows of all-time, Six Feet Under
and his current series, Dexter
. But as a film actor I've only seen him in two mediocre films, Paycheck
and Gamer
. I haven't had a chance to check out Peep World, but what I've heard about it isn't encouraging. He's now set to star alongside Vera Farmiga(Source Code
) in Love, Scotch, and Death, a semi-autobiographical film from Dexter creator James Manos Jr. The story follows a bizarre week in his life including the death of his parents, unsympathetic funeral directors, a manic wife and oversexed neighbors. This will also mark Manos's feature film directing debut. Thanks to Deadline for the details on this story.
