It's only January, but we have a contender for what may be the most unexpected headline of the year, featuring "Marvel" and "Adam Sandler" together in the same sentence.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier begins filming April 1st, and next up on the Marvel Studios' docket is the big sci-fi project, Guardians of the Galaxy, which has yet to cast a single actor. The casting process began less than two months ago and since that time, over a dozen names have been reported to have read or signed test deals with the studio for the role of Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord (the leader of the Guardians). Today we can add three more names to that list of candidates, in addition to two high-profile comedy actors for an unspecified role.

Latino-Review and their trusted sources reveal that Wes Bentley (The Hunger Games), Chris Lowell (The Practice), and Cam Gigandet (Twilight) are now in the running for the Star-Lord gig as well, with Bentley entering the race with a Marvel film already on his resume, having played Blackheart in Ghost Rider.

Adam Sandler in That's My Boy

The three join a list of reported and rumored talent which includes Joel Edgerton, Jack Huston, Jim Sturgess, Lee Pace, Eddie Redmayne, Garrett Hedlund, James Marsden, Sullivan Stapleton, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zachary Levi, Michael Rosenbaum and John Krasinski, many of whom have seemingly been ruled out since. With the list still growing, writer/director James Gunn, Marvel pres Kevin Feige and the other decision makers involved are clearly facing a tough challenge in deciding who to have lead their riskiest project to date.

What's really eye-catching is the other part of LR's scoop which indicates that Marvel Studios has inquired as to the availability of both Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler. Crazy? Perhaps not. While both actors come from a comedy background, it's likely that Marvel is simply looking for some high-profile names in building the supporting cast around whomever they choose to play Peter Quill. And we expect that both are being considered for a key voice role in the film. We already know two CG characters in Groot (second from left in image below) and Rocket Raccoon (second from the right) and it's a no-brainer to put "name" actors in both roles to help sell the feature.

Guardians of the Galaxy Concept Art from Comic-Con 2012

Carrey of course played Riddler in Batman Forever and will be in theaters later this year for a key role as Colonel Stars and Stripes in Kick-Ass 2. If you could choose, who of the two would voice Rocket? What live-action characters could they play?

Iron Man 3 releases May 3, 2013, Thor: The Dark World on November 8, 2013, Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4, 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy on August 1, 2014The Avengers 2 on May 1, 2015 and Ant-Man on November 6, 2015.

-

Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.

Source: Latino-Review