Casting Notes: Banks, Deschanel, Mortimer, Jones Join 'My Idiot Brother'; Bill Nighy In 'Shadowland 3D'; Vinnie Jones In 'The Cape'

An impressive quartet of actresses has just signed on for My Idiot Brother, the Paul Rudd comedy that we first reported on last week. Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Rashida Jones and Emily Mortimer are all part of the cast as of now. (And just the other night I was wondering how the hell Emily Mortimer seems to have barely aged since appearing in The Ghost and the Darkness in 1996.)

The film is about "an idealist (Rudd) dealing with his over¬bearing mother who crashes at the homes of his three ambitious sisters and brings truth, happiness and a sunny disposition into their lives while also wreaking havoc." Banks, Deschanel and Mortimer are his sisters, while Jones plays Rudd's 'caring, responsible' girlfriend.

Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall wrote; Jesse Peretz directs. The film shoots next month in New York City.[THR]

After the break, it's Bill Nighy in 3D! And Vinnie Jones becomes a super-villain. Again.

Bill Nighy is going to topline the cast of Shadowland, an adaptation of Peter Straub's novel, says STYD. The film will be 3D (sigh) and also feature Natalie Dormer from The Tudors. Larry Leahy scripted from the novel, and Erik Canuel directs. I dimply recall reading the novel years ago, and Amazon's description follows:

First setting: an all-male prep school in Arizona, where two sensitive freshmen form a bond based on their interest in magic tricks. Second setting: the labyrinthine house of a weird magician uncle in New England, where the two boys spend a memorable summer being trained in the art of illusion. Or is it real magic? Third setting: an alternate world where dark forces are at play–forces that first show up at the school, but intensify their power the summer.

The latest addition to NBC's show The Cape (a show about a framed cop who takes on the mantle of his son's favorite comic book superhero) is tough guy Vinnie Jones, who'll be a new series regular. He'll play the 'powerful criminal' named Scales, "a frightening man with a freakish skin condition that gives him the appearance of green and gold scales." So, that may be fairly cool; sounds like the show's very own Killer Croc. [THR]