It's hard to top the cast of the original British farce Death at a Funeral, which wasn't particularly star-studded, but was absolutely hilarious. Chris Rock must have known this when he decided to remake the film with an African-American cast, so he's signed on about as many promising names as you can get. Martin Lawrence and Tracy Morgan will be the headlining stars with Rock, and Danny Glover, Regina Hall, James Marsden, Zoe Saldana, Columbus Short, Loretta Devine and Ron Glass will round out the cast.

The THR announcement doesn't say who's playing who, but does suggest that the Neil Labute-directed version will keep the same plot as the original. The British film, directed by Frank Oz, centered around a British family gathering to bury their stuffy old father, only to discover that one of the guests is their father's ex-gay-lover, threatening blackmail. Given that Marsden is the only white member of the cast, he's a good candidate to play the gay lover-- which would be more than hilarious. Then again, the original cast included all kinds of fiances and in-laws, so the key role of the lover-- played memorably by Peter Dinklage the first time around-- could still be up for grabs.

I still don't feel certain that Death at a Funeral particularly needs to be remade, and secretly wish that Dinklage would just return to play the same role. But if I've got to come to terms with a new cast, I supposed this one's a good place to start.