Casting Net: Chris Evans takes the reins on a new project

• Chris Evans may be best known for playing the straitlaced Captain America, but that doesn’t mean he’s content to just rest on his superhero laurels. The Avengers star will make his feature directorial debut with the romance 1:30 Train, which he’ll also star in and produce alongside McG. The story, penned by Ronald Bass (Stepmom), is disarmingly similar to the idea behind Before Sunrise, and follows two strangers who meet in New York and spend the night together. Evans plans to shoot the movie before he begins work on The Avengers: Age of Ultron. [Deadline]

• Jack Black (School of Rock) is set to make a cameo in Sex Tape as the CEO of a porn company. Director Jake Kasdan‘s raunchy comedy stars Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel as a married couple who make a sex tape that goes missing by morning. Black worked with Kasdan previously in Orange County, where he played the deadbeat brother to Colin Hanks’ character. [The Wrap]

• Comedian Rob Corddry (Children’s Hospital) is also in negotiations to join Sex Tape to play the part of the friend who goes on the hunt for the missing tape with Diaz and Segel. [THR]

• He’s stayed away from films for seven years, but Charles Grodin (Beethoven) has decided to make his grand return to the form as Naomi Watts‘ father in While We’re Young, from director Noah Baumbach. Grodin’s last film was 2007’s The Ex, with Zach Braff and Amanda Peet. [The Wrap]

• Ed Harris (The Truman Show) is in negotiations to join Liam Neeson in Jaume Collet-Serra‘s Run All Night, as the leader of a Philadelphia mob. Neeson plays a hit man on the run with his son, played by The Killing‘s Joel Kinnaman.[The Wrap]