Focking Hell

Here at Empire Online we always applaud ambitious casting. Nothing tells the audience that you care like shelling out oodles of cash for improbably big stars in an ensemble cast. All hail, therefore, to Ben Stiller as he tries to lock down the cast for Meet the Fockers. At the recent US premiere of Along Came Polly, Stiller was asked about the progress of the Meet the Parents sequel. Filming was due to begin this March for a Christmas release, but Stiller revealed that it had been pushed back to allow more time to find the perfect actors to play the Fockers. It will be immediately obvious to anyone who saw the first film that these must be special people. Not only do they live with that surname, they named their son Gaylord Focker. So the casting is pretty important. Never fear, however, for Ben has some names in mind for the perfect pair. The bumbling Mr Focker is, it seems, a role ideally suited to Dustin Hoffman, while for Mrs Focker - apparently a sex therapist by trade - Stiller wants that big-voiced queen of the ballad, Barbra Streisand. Nothing's been signed but Stiller remains hopeful he can talk the pair into climbing aboard. Streisand has been absent from the big screen since 1996