Casting Couch: Carrie, Billy Dee Do the Robot Chicken Dance; Mad Man Star on B'way

Actors to lend voices to sequel to Seth Green's Emmy-nominated Carton Network show

By Josh Grossberg Jul 23, 2008 4:51 PMTags
Robot Chicken Star WarsAdult Swim/Cartoon Network

The Force is still with Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams.

The Star Wars stars are set to reprise their iconic roles as Princess Leia and Lando Calrissian, lending their pipes to the Cartoon Network's Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II.

Seth Green is once again on board to helm the animated sequel, a follow-up to Adult Swim's George Lucas-sanctioned special that not only earned Green an Annie Award for Best Direction but also a recent Emmy nomination for Best Animated Show.

"It doesn't even seem real—getting to make Star Wars twice!" the Robot Chicken mastermind tells the Hollywood Reporter.

Also returning for the second go-round are Seth MacFarlane as Emperor Palpatine, Conan O'Brien as Zuckuss, Breckin Meyer as Admiral Ackbar and Boba Fett, and Star Wars prequel actor Ahmed Best again doing his Jar Jar Binks routine.

New additions include Andy Richter, though it's not known what role he'll be voicing.

Cocreator Matt Senreich tells the Reporter the new installment plans "to focus on the bounty hunters a bit and explore their stories."

The news comes the day after the DVD for the first Robot Chicken: Star Wars hit stores. The sequel will premiere on Adult Swim Nov. 16.

Meanwhile, former ER star Julianna Margulies, Emily Mortimer and Alan Arkin are set to join Andy Garcia and Steven Strait in the indie family comedy City Island.

The flick centers on a Bronx prison official and wannabe actor (Garcia) who discovers that an inmate (Strait) is actually his son from a long-ago fling. Hilarity presumably ensues as the official tries to become the con's guardian.

Margulies plays Garcia's wife, Arkin a teacher in his acting class, and Mortimer a fellow acting student he becomes friends with.

City began lensing last week on location in the Bronx.

In other entertainment dealings:

  • Mad Men costar Elisabeth Moss is joining Jeremy Piven and Raul Esparza in the 20th-anniversary Broadway production of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. Moss is playing the role originated onstage by Madonna two decades ago opposite Joe Mantegna and Ron Silver. Previews begin Oct. 3 at the Belasco Theatre and the curtain is set to rise Oct. 26.
  • Actor-turned-director Peter Berg (Hancock) has, per Variety, signed on to develop and direct Hercules: The Thracian Wars, a mythology-based action epic based on a five-issue comic book series. Berg is also developing a new feature-version of Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel Dune.
  • Hellboy II villain Luke Goss and Jenna Dewan have been tapped to topline Magdalena, a feature based on a comic book about a hot female warrior who's supposedly a descendant of Mary Magdalene and battles supernatural forces. Goss is playing Kristof, an agent sent by a secret society that has guarded that lineage à la The Da Vinci Code.