How to Cast: Russell Brand

Verrry carefully. Anything can happen when you cast this British comedic live wire, so you best find something that suits his extremely quirky sensibilities. For instance, here he is behaving badly after his Late Night with Jimmy Fallon stint:

I still don’t get the hair, but I first took notice of Brand after his scene-stealing moments in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He chewed up the scenery like a pro as the wild British rock star who woos away young Sarah (Kristen Bell) from sad-sack Peter (Jason Segel).

Now, according to Cinematical, he has the chance to do some more chewing by possibly starring in a remake of the really bad but cult-ish comedy Drop Dead Fred. The 1991 original starred another wacky Brit named Rik Mayall, playing a destructive imaginary childhood friend who comes back to haunt his maker as an adult, the lovely Phoebe Cates. Wonder whatever happened to her? She quit acting, married Kevin Kline and had a few kids. I remember wanting to be her when she was Seventeen magazine’s top model. But I digress …

I guess this Fred will be more in the “tone of Beetlejuice, building a universe around the concept of imaginary friends.” That sounds more Brand’s style, and I suppose remaking a movie that may only be golden in a few people’s hearts is better than say, remaking Beetlejuice itself. Speaking of that, I miss Michael Keaton – but I digress …

In other casting news: Benicio Del Toro could do comedy, dark as it may be, starring in Lunar Park, an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis semi-autobiographical novel. Cinematical calls it a “mix between fact and fiction, taking nibbles from Ellis’ early fame (drug use, Glamorama book tours), and then morphing it into ghost story as he moves into a haunted house in a fictional New York City suburb.” One thing is for sure – Del Toro never does anything boring.

And speaking of books, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is getting modernized, with Jack Black playing Lemuel Gulliver, a travel writer who inadvertently gets stuck on the secret island of Lilliput, with its industrious community of little people. Jack can totally pull this off, but can the little people really pin him down?

Finally, Michael Douglas and Oliver Stone are going to update Wall Street‘s Gordon Gekko – for real. In this case, I’m afraid greed will NOT be good. UPDATE: The sequel is tentatively titled Money Never Sleeps and might also star Shia LaBeouf as a young buck trader. Still doesn’t sound any better.