Casting Bits: Tom Kenny Confirmed For 'Transformers 3;' Frances McDormand In 'Madagascar 3;' Jeffrey Dean Morgan In 'Dibbuk Box'

There's a lot of small casting news today. Let's kick off with word that Spongebob Sqaurepants himself, Tom Kenny, will once again lend his voice to a robot in the third Transformers film, Dark of the Moon. He voiced Skids (one of the generally reviled 'racist' bots) and Wheelie in the last film, but we don't know what character(s) he'll be voicing this time. [Popeater]

After the break, Frances McDormand voices a rare villain role, and the Sam Raimi-produced Dibbuk Box gets a lead.

We know that DreamWorks Animation has plans for a couple more Madagascar films, and that the third will see the lead characters "reuniting to try to find their way home to New York by joining a traveling circus."

Now we know that Frances McDormand will voice the villain in Madagascar 3, " a calculating and goal-oriented animal control officer who leads her team to capture the animals." It's the first animation work for the actress, and that might be enough to put me in a seat for the film. Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith are set to reprise their lead voice roles, and Eric Darnell, who co-directed the first two films and contributed to their scripts, will direct. Oh, and Noah Baumbach contributed to this script, so that's something. [THR]

Finally, Jeffrey Dean Morgan will star in Dibbuk Box, the horror thriller that Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert are producing for LionsGate. Directed by Ole Bornedal (The Substitute) the film is written by Juliet Snowden and Stiles White, and tells of " a recently divorced father whose youngest daughter becomes strangely connected to an antique wooden box she purchased at a yard sale. As his daughter's behavior becomes more erratic, the father senses a dark presence building until he discovers that the box was built to contain a dibbuk — a dislocated spirit that inhabits and ultimately devours its human host."

So it's not about someone trying to figure out how the first scene of A Serious Man fits into the rest of the movie? Well, OK then. [Variety]