John Wells had very, very good timing when he decided to direct The Company Men, a drama about a corporate bigshot who has to cope with life when he gets laid off. And Ben Affleck had similarly good timing when he signed up for the lead role. So it may have taken Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones a while to realize that this is exactly the kind of movie to be in right now, they now appear to have seen the light.

Variety reports that Costner will play the brother-in-law of Affleck's character, a blue-collar kind of guy who gives Affleck a construction job. Jones, on the other hand, will play a character on the corporate side of things, who tries to do good despite working with a whole bunch of jerks.

There actually seems to be some neat role-reversal going on here-- Jones and Costner are both experienced at playing salt-of-the-earth types, but you'd definitely figure Jones to be the drywall installer before Costner. Wells, who is making his directorial debut after lots of experience in TV, is setting up a nice cast for himself here, and if it works out as well as it does on paper, we'll all be rewarded as well as AIG staffers. Zing!