British comic actor Richard Ayoade, best known on this side of the Atlantic as one of the socially awkward The IT Crowd, has been cast in the upcoming Akiva Schaffer-directed science-fiction comedy Neighborhood Watch. Reportedly, Ayoade got the role after filmmakers passed on using Chris Tucker.
The film, written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, centers on a group of suburbaniutes who form a neighborhood crime watch group only to uncover a much larger conspiracy. The film stars Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Rosemarie DeWitt.
Ayoade has been making some headway into Hollywood over the last couple of years. His British independent film directorial debut Submarine was distributed by the Weinstein Company last year. He has also directed a number of episodes of the series Community. His IT Crowd co-star Chris Dowd has been making similar in-roads as well. This summer he had a co-starring role in the hit Brides Maids and next summer will be seen in Judd Apatow’s This Is Forty. Hopefully, their success will not preclude them returning for another season or two of IT Crowd.
