Married With Stepchildren: Al Bundy–player Ed O’Neill has joined the cast of ABC’s half-hour pilot An American Family, a single-camera comedy about three families. O’Neill will play a 60-year-old man who becomes a stepfather after marrying a 30-year-old woman (Sofia Vergara). We’re sure he’ll make an excellent parent. [HR]
Sword Fight: Michael Pena, Bill Cobbs, and Brad Dourif have joined Michael Shannon, Willem Defoe, and Chloë Sevigny on the cast of My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, a film to be directed by Warner Herzog and executive produced by David Lynch. The movie is based on a true story, in which a San Diego man kills his mother with a sword, and it’s already giving us nightmares. [Variety]
Reliance and Ratner: Brett Ratner will direct Youngblood, Rob Liefield’s graphic novel about a crew of government-sponsored superheroes. Reliance Big Entertainment purchased the rights to the book while also setting up a development deal with Ratner, adding to previously announced deals with Brad Pitt’s, George Clooney’s, and Tom Hanks’s production companies. “[Reliance] really offers freedom for the talent they’re working with,†Ratner said. “And also for me,†Ratner did not add. [Variety]
Rebel Yell: The Rebels, a remake of the hit Argentine show Rebelde Way, about a teen pop band whose members attend a fancy private school, is coming to Fox. Urban-dance-movie specialist Duane Adler (Step Up, Save the Last Dance) has adapted the screenplay, and Jennifer Lopez will produce. We can’t wait to see the creative ways in which the Rebels flout the school’s dress code. [Variety]
Fiennes Work: Ralph Fiennes is directing his first movie, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, and will also star as the titular character, a soldier in the early Roman republic done in by a misguided run for the senate. Vanessa Redgrave is in talks to play his ambitious mother. No word yet on whether there’s a job in it for Fiennes’s slacking brother, Joseph. [Variety]
Priest Mickey: Mickey Rourke will star in St. Vincent as a hit man masquerading as a priest who hears the confession of the man he’s supposed to kill — then hilarity ensues? The project will pair Rourke with director Walter Hill, with whom he made Johnny Handsome in 1989. [HR]
Blink’s Back: Following their appearance at the Grammys, Blink 182 has officially announced it is re-forming after a four-year break: The trio is in the studio recording a new album and there are apparently rumors that they will open for Green Day this summer. And right now, somewhere, an Angels and Airwaves fan is crying into his pillow. [Billboard]