Will Ferrell is 'The Yank'; Johnny Knoxille Takes 'Sick Day'; Michael Ealy is 'The Perfect Guy'

* Will Ferrell is circling a starring role in The Yank, a fish-out-of-water comedy written by Steve Pink (Hot Tub Time Machine) and Jeff Morris. TriStar has picked up the pitch about an insurance agent who gets caught up in a scheme to steal the Crown Jewels from England.  Ferrell has been plenty busy this year, already starring in the (unfunny) miniseries The Spoils of Babylon and voicing the villain in The Lego Movie. He'll be seen next opposite Kevin Hart in Get Hard.

* Johnny Knoxville is about to take a Sick Day for director Jeremy Garelick (The Break-Up). The head Jackass is attached to star in the film originally penned by Garelick and rewritten by Jordan Cahan, which follows three friends "who uphold a tradition of calling in sick one day a year to fulfill fantasies while not getting caught." Ferris Bueller called and he wants his plot back. [Deadline]

* There are a lot of ladies who see Michael Ealy as The Perfect Guy, and apparently so does director Sylvain White. Ealy, along with Sanaa Lathan and Morris Chestnut, have been offered roles in the steamy revenge thriller about a woman who enters into a sexually-charged relationship with the "perfect guy", only for his violent and obsessive side to emerge later on when she tries to call it off. The script was written by former U.S. prosecutor Barbara Curry, and the project is housed over at Screen Gems who have worked with Ealy on About Last Night, Takers, and Think Like a Man.

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Anthony Mackie, Forest Whitaker make pact for Vipaka

Before Anthony Mackie dives into the star studded mobster flick, Gangter Squad, he'll squeeze in a voo-doo themed psycho thriller alongside another of my favorite actors, Forest Whitaker. Variety reports that Mackie will star in Vipaka, directed by Philippe Caland(Boxing Helena). Sanaa Lathan(Love & Basketball) is co-starring.

The story revolves around a rivalry between two men in a game that tests their beliefs in what they believe to be true. Uh oh. A game of religious chicken. Whitaker's character is said to be the unstable one, which I hope doesn't mean he's walking around with a necklace of shrunken heads. Movies that even mention the word "voo-doo" tend to all have the same flavor. I expect to see a chicken getting it's neck broken and the blood poured into a pentagram or something.

This feels like a throwaway film for Mackie, although considering the two leads it may be better than it appears. He'll be seen next in the Shawn Levy robot brawler, Real Steel. He's got Gangster Squad upcoming, and he just finished shooting Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. He's also got the Sam Worthington heist film, Man on a Ledge. He appeared earlier this year in what I think was his best performance opposite Matt Damon in The Adjustment Bureau.

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