Billy Crudup‘s always had a slightly uneasy relationship with celebrity. The stage star grabbed many with his film debut in Barry Levinson‘s “Sleepers,” but ever since, he hasn’t shown much desire to really jump on the A-list; every time he takes on a star-making turn like “Almost Famous,” he returns to the stage, or makes a tiny little-seen indie, with his blockbuster performances tending towards supporting roles in the likes of “Mission: Impossible III” or “Public Enemies.”
He’s not exactly breaking the habit now, but Crudup has just signed on to a big movie, one that’ll see him take a relatively rare dip into comedy. Heat Vision report that the actor is in talks to play “a creepy and weird neighbor” in “Neighborhood Watch,” the 20th Century Fox comedy that already toplines Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill, about a group of suburban friends who form the titular group after a murder, only to discover an alien plot to take over the world. Correct us if we’re wrong, but it sounds like Crudup’s going to be putting on the bad guy hat for this one?
This was initially a film that we were pretty apathetic about, if not dreading, but the more we’ve learned about it, the more interested we’ve become: the script comes from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, “Hot Rod” helmer and Lonely Island member Akiva Schaffer is in the director’s chair, and the three comic behemoths at the head of the film are joined by an interesting mix of actors, including “MacGruber” star Will Forte, Rosemarie DeWitt, “Submarine” director Richard Ayoade, and now Crudup. We’ll see how it all turns out when the flick hits theaters on July 27, 2012.
