Submarine director (and Total Film columnist) Richard Ayoade has landed a high-profile role alongside Ben Stiller in Neighborhood Watch .
The Shaun Levy-produced movie revolves around a bunch of guys who get together to form the titular community group, but instead of sitting around drinking tea and moaning about the brightness of streetlights, they actually uncover a major conspiracy.
As far as recent high-concepts go, this one sounds like it has potential, throwing ordinary schlubs into a fun sounding situation, and hopefully mocking neighbourhood watch schemes along the way. Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill have already been cast.
Akiva Schaffer ( Saturday Night Live , Hot Rod ) is directing, with a script from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
Before shooting to fame as a TF columnist (and, y’know, a Brit director to keep a very close eye on), Ayoade was best known as an actor in the likes of British TV gems such as Nathan Barley , Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and The IT Crowd .
His next movie as director will be an adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s The Double , starring Jesse Eisenberg.
Neighborhood Watch is expected to open in summer 2012.