Wow – Iron Man must be going better than anyone could have expected, for the movie’s director, Jon ‘Favs’ Favreau, has just signalled his intention to take a break from post-production by signing on to co-star in New Line’s romantic comedy, Four Christmases.
By doing so, Favreau will once again hook up with his bestest chum in the whole wide world, Mr. Vince Vaughn, who stars alongside Reese Witherspoon in the movie, about a couple who have to spend their Christmas Day ferrying back and forth between the households of each of their separated parents.
Favs, whose chemistry with Vaughn was the best thing about The Break-Up, the last thing in which they appeared together, will play Vaughn’s brother Dallas, a bully who delights in torturing his sibling whenever he arrives for Christmas.
Country singer Tim McGraw – whose most famous song probably involves brackets and a pick-up truck – has also signed on to play another bullying brother, this one by the name of Denver.
We’d be cynical about McGraw’s acting ability, but he was pretty good in a small role in Peter Berg’s The Kingdom (and Friday Night Lights for that matter), and besides, C&W singers seem to be better actors than their rock’n’roll counterparts.
Take, for example, Dwight Yoakam, who’s been banging out cracking cameos for a while now, from Panic Room to Vaughn’s Wedding Crashers, to Crank. He’s also been cast in Four Christmases as Pastor Phil, the overly zealous partner of Brad’s mother-in-law (Mary Steenburgen), who persuades Vaughn and Witherspoon to take part in his church’s nativity play. Hilarity, no doubt, ensues.
The cast for this is filling out nicely, with Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Kristin Chenoweth already on board the movie, which starts filming soon under the auspices of Seth Gordon, director of acclaimed documentary, The King Of Kong. And it’s always nice to see Vaughn and Favs rekindle their Swingers chemistry on the big-screen – just don’t take too long off, eh, Favs? Get back to that editing room and make Iron Man shine!