Sigourney Weaver and Alia Shawkat will join Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, and Anne Heche in Miguel Arteta’s upcoming comedy, “Cedar Rapids”.  The movie, written by Phil Johnston and co-developed with Helms, follows “a sad-sack insurance agent who goes to an industry convention to try and save the jobs of his colleagues.”  Weaver, who will next be seen in James Cameron’s “Avatar”, plays Helms’ 7^th-grade teacher.  As we previously reported, John C. Reilly plays a family man attending the conference but his character sees it as a chance to bust loose.  No word yet on Shawkat’s role. [Variety]

A comedy starring John C. Reilly and Ed Helms?  Yeah, I think I’m on board.  THR is reporting that Reilly has signed on to co-star in “Cedar Rapids”, a comedy about a ” a wholesome and naive small-town Wisconsin man (Helms) who, when his role model dies, must represent his company at a regional insurance conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where his mind is blown by the big-town experience.”  Reilly would also play a family man attending the conference but his character sees it as a chance to bust loose.  Miguel Arteta is on board to direct which will take his mind off his previous film, “Youth in Revolt”, being unable to grab onto a release date.

I had a sneaking suspicion I would like “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard”.  Yes, Jeremy Piven has become tiresome both with his stale Ari Gold character and his personal diva-like behavior in the public sphere.  But the film had a strong bench and when you surround yourself with reliable comic talent, you can get something really fantastic.

With “The Goods”, that’s an understatement.  Hit the jump to find out why this is one of the funniest comedies I’ve seen all year.

Ed Helms is now a movie star.  Get used to it.  The former “Daily Show” contributor and co-star of this summer’s breakout comedy “The Hangover” has signed to his second starring role in as many months.  The first, coming while “Hangover” was still king of the box office, was a little indie road-trip movie but today Helms got onboard a big time studio comedy called “Central Intelligence”.  Hit the jump for all the details.

If Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Bruno” and Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” weren’t hurtling towards us, then I could safely say that Todd Phillips’ “The Hangover” is the funniest film of the year.  But even acknowledging the comedic skills of Cohen and Apatow, they have a very high bar to clear against Phillips’ unashamed raunchy guy humor that would pause for a moment of affection if it gave a shit about that touchy-feely crap.  “The Hangover” is rude, loud, obnoxious, and painfully hilarious.

I don’t know what else I can say about director Todd Philips “The Hangover”. I’ve already told you it’s laugh out loud funny. I’ve already said you absolutely need to see it this weekend so people don’t ruin all the jokes. Also, everyone’s going to be talking about this movie next week, and you’ll want to be able to join in the conversation.

Again, this film is the real deal and Todd’s best work since “Old School”.

Anyhow, a little over a week ago I was in Las Vegas for the press junket and I got to participate in a roundtable interview with Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis. If you’d like to hear about some stories about making the movie, the transcript is after the break.

As always, you can also listen to the audio of the interview by clicking here. With three people talking, that might be your better option. Finally, here’s some movie clips from “The Hangover”. You’re all going to love this movie.

Opening this Friday is director Todd Phillip’s new comedy “The Hangover”. As I’ve said many times, the film is laugh out loud funny and absolutely worth a full price ticket this weekend. So to help promote the film, I was recently in Las Vegas for the press junket. In the coming days I’ll be posting some transcripts and exclusive interviews, but until then, I’m offering some of the roundtable interviews as audio files.

With the new design of Collider, I’m going to experiment with the way I offer content. While we’ll always have transcripts of selected interviews, I’m going to try and post the audio files of my interviews on the day they happen. At least that’s the dream.

Anyway, if you’re looking forward to “The Hangover”, or just want to hear some of the cast talk, just click on the links. And if you missed the movie clips from “The Hangover”, click here. They’re great.

Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis

Heather Graham

Justin Bartha

Director Todd Phillips

Screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore

When I woke up this morning I was at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas attending the press junket for the VERY funny Warner Bros. movie “The Hangover”. While I’ll have interviews with the cast and filmmakers in the coming days, I was provided with a bunch of movie clips and a featurette, so I wanted to post those now.

Since I’ve gone on and on about this movie when I posted my set visit about a month ago, let’s get right to why you’re here - the clips.

As you’re about to see, this movie is all about what happens when you go to Vegas and have a crazy time. And for the two that haven’t heard about “The Hangover”, I’ve included the synopsis after the jump: