The big names that are joining the new, still untitled, Sam Mendes romantic comedy continues to grow. The Mendes film will be his follow-up to Revolutionary Road and is supposed to start filming next week in Connecticut. John Krasinski was previously announced as the lead with SNL’s Maya Rudolph. Hopefully this movie will end Krasinski mind-boggling failure to cross over as a great comic film actor.

HR is reporting that Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara have joined Krasinski and Rudolph in the cast. Also on board are Allison Janney, Cheryl Hines, and Toni Collette. That’s a pretty good freakin’ cast. Daniels is excellent and while I can’t vouch for every movie she’s ever been in, I can’t think of one bad performance O’Hara has given. Her work in the Christopher Guest mockumentaries is near genius.

The script for Mendes’ film, written by David Eggers and Vendela Vida, is about a couple (Krasinski and Rudolph) who travel around the country looking for a place to settle and raise their unborn baby. The addition of Daniels and O’Hara, plus Krasinski who I’m still holding out hope for, makes this a very intriguing picture. Look for it in 2009.