Joseph Gordon-Levitt Replaces James McAvoy In 'Untitled' Cancer Comedy With Seth Rogen

There’s been a little hiccup in the casting of the untitled Cancer comedy formerly known as, “I’m With Cancer.”

Based on Will Reisner’s comedic novel about a twenty-something who becomes stricken with the disease, James McAvoy was supposed to play the lead in a cast that featured Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

However, MTV has just learned that McAvoy had to drop out and he’s been replaced with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Not a bad trade off really and in the end the picture is no worse off for wear.

“It’s incredibly unfortunate that circumstances outside of everyone’s control have taken James away from the project, Rogen wrote in a statement that MTV was given. “But, with James’ blessing, we were able to have Joseph step in to take on the [lead] role of Adam. We all look forward to working with James in the future.”

Rogen is producing the film with writing partner Evan Goldberg. In early January, “The Wackness” director Jonathan Levine signed on replacing Nicole Holofcener who left the project last fall. Again, a minor hiccup. It’s regretful, McAvoy won’t be able to display his comedic chops (it’s a dramedy), but JGL should be more than comfortable with this ensemble.

Update: One of our writer’s posited internally, “shouldn’t McAvoy been in Vancouver already? The film was supposed to start shooting in February.” Well, maybe he was? ScreenDaily has a small update and they says McAvoy had to leave the production due to “undisclosed personal reasons” and the shooting sched was pushd to March which suggests this was sudden. We dig McAvoy a lot, he’s a great actor, so hopefully all is well in his world (and we hope that report isn’t a Hollywood euphemism for something else).

We also forgot to mention Anjelica Huston and Philip Baker Hall have also joined this excellent cast.