News: Billy Bob Thornton

Everyone’s favourite oddball Southerner, doing his best to fill the near-legendary Terry-Thomas’ shoes in this weeks School for Scoundrels remake, has another comedy up next, starring as the titular sadistic gym teacher Mr Woodcock opposite Seann William Scott and Susan Sarandon. He’s rather good at doing deeply unpleasant yet somehow entertaining characters, so this tale of the old childhood fear of a hated teacher getting it on with your mother is bound to be one of those amusing yet uncomfortable flicks when it hits our screens on 11th May.

Also on the way – completed, just not yet set for release this side of the pond, is drama The Astronaut Farmer, with Billy Bob a retired astronaut who decides to build his own rocket on his farm in his desperation to get into space. Early reports are promising – assuming you don’t mind such sentimental premises, that is… After that he’ll play a father whose family face off against a gang of local thugs in an adaptation of the Leif Enger novel Peace Like A River, which should shortly be going into production.

News: John C Reilly

The pug-faced character actor may have made his name with decent acting skills in films like this week’s A Prairie Home Companion, notably in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights and Magnolia, but he seems increasingly to be turning to comedy, as with his recent outing in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

He’s got three more comedies in the works: Quebec, as a grocery store clerk vying with his colleague Seann William Scott for a promotion; Step Brothers, another bit of comedic rivalry with his real-world buddy and Talladega Nights co-star Will Ferrell; and Walk Hard, a spoof of Oscar-winner Walk The Line, in which he’ll star as a singer on the road to music superstardom.