Last week we reported M. Night Shyamalan jumped off the Disney ship (that seems to be the trend these days) and signed with Warner Brothers for his next film, Lady in the Water. According to Variety, today the cast is starting to form for the movie, which tells the story of a building super who finds a sea nymph in his apartment building’s swimming pool.

In an odd move, casting is being announced from the studio before offers are actually in place. Typically studios don’t say much until all the “t”s are crossed, but I guess Shyamalan, who tends to write roles for specific actors, is just that confidant in his ability to work with whoever he wants due to his overwhelming success. Did he see The Village?

For the role of the building super, Night is targeting Paul Giamatti, who continues to prove his worth as a legitimate actor despite everyone but him receiving an acting nomination for Sideways. Although playing a curmudgeonly building super continues to typecast Giamatti in the same type role, there hasn’t been a better actor to play that type of part since Joe Pesci in The Super.

Continuing his trend of having to work with at least one actor two films in a row, Shyamalan is after Bryce Dallas Howard for the role of the sea nymph. Howard, of course, played the lead in The Village, although there wasn’t a review out there that blamed her for the film’s mediocrity. Also certain to be cast in some role is Night himself, who always pulls a Hitchcock and appears somewhere in his films.

Lady in the Water is scheduled to start filming in August with a tentative July 2006 release.