Liam-NeesonSeth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West has been shaping up very nicely in recent weeks. MacFarlane is set to take the leading role once more in his follow-up to Ted, and both Charlize Theron and Amanda Seyfried came on board last month.

Now THR are reporting that Giovanni Ribisi has joined the project, and that Liam Neeson is in negotiations to star alongside them.

“A Million Ways to Die follows a cowardly sheep farmer (MacFarlane) who chickens out of a gunfight and sees his girlfriend (Seyfried) leave him for another man. When a mysterious woman (Theron) rides into town, she helps him find his courage. But when her outlaw husband arrives seeking revenge, the farmer must put his newfound courage to the test.”

Neeson would be coming on board to play Theron’s outlaw husband. And it currently isn’t known which role Ribisi would play.

MacFarlane will be directing from a script he co-wrote with frequent collaborators Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild (Family Guy, Ted), and he’ll also produce alongside Scott Stuber and Jason Clark.

Ribisi of course worked with MacFarlane on the latter’s debut last year, Ted, and I can’t wait to see them working alongside each other once more. The report also notes that Ribisi has come on board after Jonah Hill passed on the project. A partnership between MacFarlane and Hill would have been amazing, but we all know that Ribisi is a genius, and is undoubtedly a perfect fit for whatever role he’ll be playing.

Neeson was most recently seen in another of last year’s biggest films, Taken 2, cementing his status as a go-to heroic figure for Hollywood. He is, of course, no stranger to playing characters on the opposite side of the law, and I’m hoping negotiations will go well to have him come on board here.

A Million Ways to Die in the West is set to begin production in May, and here’s to hoping it will be a smooth production, and that it will arrive on our screens next summer.