Well… maybe Chris Tucker will have to put off that big screen comeback a little longer…

Recall Tucker was “in talks” to co-star alongside Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill in a comedy titled Neighborhood Watch, which centers on “a group of suburban neighbors whose Neighborhood Watch is really a front for them to escape their families — until they discover a plot to destroy the world.

Chris Tucker was being courted for the role of “Jamarcus,” a recent divorcee.

However, Variety reported a little earlier today that British actor/director Richard Ayoade has instead landed the role of Jamarcus.

Hah! I laugh because, given recent debates about black British actors versus black American actors, and available work here in the states, specifically in Hollywood, I can already anticipate some of the comments that will follow this post 🙂

As already noted, Ayoade is also a director in his own right – a critically acclaimed director at that, with his feature film debut, Submarine, released earlier in the summer by The Weinstein Company; and he’s currently working on an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky‘s novella The Double, with The Social Network’s Jesse Eisenberg attached to star.

By the way, Ben Stiller, who’s starring in Neighborhood Watch, was also the producer of Ayoade’s Submarine; so that connection between the two of them may have been of some influence. Although Variety doesn’t say what happened with Chris Tucker, who’s currently on a nationwide stand-up comedy tour that will run through November. Maybe that was part of the reason… scheduling.

*Shrug*

Although he was also “in talks” to join the cast of a drama from David O. Russell titled The Silver Linings Playbook. No word on where that stands.