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Steven Soderbergh Casts E!'S Joel Mchale in "The Informant"

Is Joel McHale, the host of E!'s The Soup the next Greg Kinnear? Only time will tell, but things look promising for McHale's future given his recent casting in a major Hollywood picture. The host of the cable network's long-running, snarky TV clips show, which launched Kinnear's mainstream movie career, is in final negotiations to appear in Steven Soderbergh's darkly comedic thriller, The Informant.

McHale joins the cast alongside superstar Matt Damon and Scott Bakula. The film is based on The Informant: A True Story, a best-selling book scribed by New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald that chronicles how corporate agricultural giant Archer Daniels Midland was brought to justice and paid a $100 million fine when one of its employees, Mark Whitacre (Damon's character), leaked sensitive internal details about a price-fixing scam. McHale and Bakula team up as FBI agents who are assisting Whitacre in blowing the whistle on the corporate corruption.

Despite the weighty nature of the source material, Soderbergh has hired a slew of actors, besides McHale, with comedic backgrounds, which should give the film a dark-humored slant. Sitcom stars Mike O'Malley, Andrew Daly and Melanie Lynskey have also been cast in roles in the film. Soderbergh can't go wrong with this vehicle, thanks to solid actors with comedic flair and by showing how a few men took down a corporate giant or "the man."

— The ARTISTDirect Staff
04.02.08