Ryan Gosling joins Carell comedy

Steve Carell’s latest comedy has bagged a certain Ryan Gosling, who's dipping his toe into the comedy pool after a string of dramatic roles.

The as-yet-untitled film is about a man (played by Carell) whose marriage is on the rocks, and whose relationship with his children is strained at best.

Gosling will play the lead’s “suave best friend”.

The film will be directed by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, who courted controversy with their Bad Santa script, and upcoming directorial debut, Jim Carrey comedy I Love You Phillip Morris .

The duo will work from a script by Dan Fogelman, who wrote the animated Bolt and Cars , as well as Vince Vaughn flop Fred Claus .

In other casting news, Rachel Nichols is set to join Jason Momoa and Mickey Rourke in Conan .

Having beaten out competition from Jessica Lucas ( Cloverfield ) and Sarah Shahi ( The L Word ), she’s nabbed herself the role of Tamara in Marcus Nispel’s reboot, which will see her playing the Queen’s servant, bodyguard and best friend.

The martial arts involved shouldn't be a problem: Nichols flipped about already in last year's GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Shooting on Conan begins later this month.

Conan or comedy? Which tickles you?

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.