Albert Brooks Joins 'A Most Violent Year', Emily Mortimer in 'Ten Thousand Saints', Analeigh Tipton Does 'Mississippi Grind'

* And the cast of J.C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year keeps getting better. Already with Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, and Alfred Molina on board, the latest to join them is comedy legend, Albert Brooks. But don't expect this one to be a laugher by any means as Brooks is probably going to be in full Drive mode here. The story takes place in 1981 New York, one of the most violent years on record for the city, and follows a family whose ambition to grow their heating oil business runs them afoul of the criminal element. Brooks will play the attorney for Isaacs' character. [Deadline]

* Writing/directing duo Bob Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman swung and missed badly with last year's Girl Most Likely, but they're hoping to bounce back with Ten Thousand Saints, an adaptation of Eleanor Henderson's novel set in 1980s New York on the Lower East Side. Joining the already-cast Ethan Hawke, Emile Hirsch, Hailee Steinfeld, and Asa Butterfield are Emily Mortimer (The Newsroom) and the underrated Julianne Nicholson (August: Osage County). The story is described as “a coming-of-age story that follows three screwed-up young people and their equally screwed-up parents in the age of CBGB, yuppies and the tinderbox of gentrification that exploded into the Tompkins Square Riots.” [THR]

* Crazy Stupid Love star Analeigh Tipton will do the Mississippi Grind for Half Nelson directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden. The gambling drama stars Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn, Alfre Woodard, and Sienna Miller, centering on a drifter and hard-luck poker player making their way through the South with a plan to win back everything they've lost. So far Fleck and Boden have yet to slip up behind the camera, also directing Sugar and It's Kind of a Funny Story, so expectations are understandably high for this one.