From Entertainment Weekly:
Woody Allen wanted fellow tabloid fixtures Robert Downey Jr. and Winona Ryder
to star in his next movie. Instead, he's getting Will Ferrell and Radha
Mitchell. Variety reported this weekend the casting of Ferrell, who becomes the
second recent ''Saturday Night Live'' player to win a plum role in an Allen
picture. (Current ''SNL''-er Jimmy Fallon costars opposite Jason Biggs,
Christina Ricci, and Allen in the writer-director's romantic comedy ''Anything
Else,'' which opens Sept. 19.)
Allen's negotiations with Ryder, who had costarred in his 1998 ''Celebrity,''
never came to fruition. Downey was ready to play the male lead, but
semi-independent studio Fox Searchlight couldn't budget the cost of the
insurance to cover the actor, who's been reportedly clean and sober for two
years. Instead, Allen has cast Australian actress Mitchell, perhaps best known
for her starring roles in 1998's indie ''High Art'' and the Vin Diesel sci-fi
chiller ''Pitch Black,'' and Ferrell, who has made a specialty lately of
man-child roles. (Besides his recent hit ''Old School,'' he's playing a tall
human raised among Santa's wee toymakers in this fall's ''Elf.'')
As always, Allen is keeping his plot and title under wraps, but Ferrell and
Mitchell's costars will include Amanda Peet, Chloë Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller,
and Wallace Shawn. And with goofy Farrell in the lead, we're guessing this
won't be one of Allen's occasional bleak, Bergman-esque dramas. Shooting begins
Sept. 22.
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