Rosario Dawson Cast in Kevin James' 'Zookeeper'

Leslie Bibb also joins the cast

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Thursday, May 21st 2009 at 2:01 AM

Kevin James is getting ready to create the next film for every one to hate and Rosario Dawson and Leslie Bibb are all aboard as The Zookeeper gets ready to shoot in late summer in Boston with MGM set to release the film on July 23, 2010.

James just scored a massive success with Paul Blart: Mall Cop, which suffered the wrath of many critics (self included), but remains the fifth highest grossing film of the year so far with over $146 million domestically.

The Zookeeper is a live-action romantic comedy centers on zoo animals trying to teach the keeper (James) their methods of dating and mating to help him win back the woman of his dreams. Frank Coraci (Click) is directing from a screenplay by Jay Scherick and David Ronn, Kevin James, Rock Reuben and Nick Bakay.

I only wonder if Jody Hill is now busy with his own zoo-based feature, but maybe he's learned his lesson after Observe and Report was bested by Blart by over $120 million. Hill was quoted telling New York Magazine, "I figured [Paul Blart] was gonna suck… It's annoying that every time I read an article [about Observe and Report], they mention this piece-of-shit movie." I guess Hill can be happy his RottenTomatoes score is 20% better than Blart's 32%, but even at 52% I'm not sure he has much room to brag.