After I saw The Pianist, I assumed Adrien Brody to be one of those boring, stuck up actors who would spend his career doing boring Shakespeare adaptations with Kenneth Branaugh and even more boring period costume dramas written by Jane Austen. Boy was I wrong.

Since The Pianist Brody has turned into the epitome of geek cool, while hanging on to his indie film actor cred. He’s tracked down Superman’s killer in Hollywoodland, he fought a giant monkey for Peter Jackson in King Kong, he was disappointed not to be cast as Spock in JJ Abrams’ new Star Trek movie, and right now he’s in theaters as the newest edition to Wes Anderson’s weird and wonderful stable of awkwardly talented actors in The Darjeeling Limited. How can you not love Adrien Brody? Especially since he’ll spend his next movie making Ligers.

HR says Brody has been cast along with Sarah Polley in a sci-fi thriller called Splice. The movie is set in a dark, alternate world where Brody and Polley play two scientists who become famous by ignoring legal and ethical considerations to create fantastical new creatures splicing the DNA of different animals together.

Vincenzo Natali is set to direct Spliced from a script by a big group of writers. It starts shooting in Toronto soon. First Canadian to send me a Liger picture wins a Good Luck Chuck prize pack. I have extras.