David Gordon Green’s upcoming action-comedy “The Sitter,” starring Jonah Hill, was already looking like it was going to be a lot of fun. Written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka (they’re actually writing the “Baywatch” feature too), the script we read earlier this year was an enjoyable blast of comic silliness, probably not far off in tone from Green’s “Pineapple Express” in 2008.
Well, it just got that much better. Sam Rockwell is evidently in final negotiations to play one of the two drug dealers in the film that chases Hill’s character around town for losing his cocaine in a wild night of danger and adventure. Rockwell already worked on Green’s low-key indie drama, “Snow Angels,” and the filmmaker has always talked fondly about that collaboration so it doesn’t surprise us they decided to work together again. Though the drug dealer role was originally African American. Can you see Sam Rockwell pulling a Gary Oldman a la “True Romance”? One can only hope.
This likely means most of the key casting pieces are complete. Max Records, the lead in “Where The Wild Things Are,” essentially has the lead child role (the elder neurotic boy), while Kevin Hernandez, who’ll be seen in Mel Gibson vehicle “How I Spent My Summer Vacation,”and Landry Bender play the other two children that Hill’s college kid character is forced to babysit at the behest of his mother since he’s been expelled from school. J.B. Smoove, the stand-up-turned-actor best known for his role as Leon Black in “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” has the other drug dealer role, and Ari Graynor who is perhaps best known for her drunken friend role in “Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” will play Hill’s selfish girlfriend. The aforementioned mom role is basically the last piece of the puzzle, though there is one more small slot for a fun, dumb, jock role.
“The Sitter” is already set for a July 15th, 2011 release and Green’s “Your Highness” will hit theaters April 8th, 2011, so that will be two films from the prolific director in one year (and less than three months apart) and three comedies in a row. [The Wrap]
