Bailee Madision, Bette Midler join Billy Crystal in Us & Them

Child actors tend to be a big distraction for me. Most of the time they're so bad as to totally take me out of the moment, and since they are kids don't have the ability to do much but scream and act bratty.  Bailee Madison was a rare exception, though, providing quite the emotional punch in 2009's Brothers, opposite Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire. She was so impressive that Natalie Portman basically got her the lead gig in Guillermo Del Toro's Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, which she was totally irritating in. But even though she hasn't really lived up to her performance in Brothers ever since, Madison's future is still pretty bright, and now she'll get to star in a comedy with two Hollywood legends, Billy Crystal and Bette Midler.

Variety reports that she and Midler have joined the cast of Us & Them, a family comedy starring Crystal and directed by Andy Fickman(You Again, Reefer Madness: The Musical). The script is by the City Slickers duo of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, and I only wish this was the third part of that series. Instead the film has Crystal and Midler as a married couple in the midst of a separation, who find themselves forced together staying at the home of their three grandchildren.

Sounds hilarious. Old fogeys rendered dazed and confused by all that new fangled technology and modern parenting techniques. We'll see how this one shakes out. Production kicks off later this month in Atlanta.