The heist movie made a bit of a comeback in 2011, when Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, and more break into evil billionaire Alan Alda's high-rise apartment for millions…

Tower Heist keeps inching closer to becoming a movie by picking up talent left and right. Matthew Broderick is now on board to play a Wall Street suit who joins Ben Stiller in the plot to get revenge against Alan Alda's Madoff-like character. Fake documentarian Casey Affleck is also joining up as Stiller's best friend/voice of reason. He'll help complicate the would-be robbery when he takes a firm stance against it. Judd Hirsch will play an unspecified role in the film. Let's just assume he'll play an old school New Yorker. Or a cop. Or a guy who looks like a Cookie Puss ice cream cake.

The resemblance is quite haunting. (via /Film)

He can't resist a photo op.
The 1st Assistant Camera on Brett Ratner's The Tower Heist had better not forget to put a long lens on the order. Precious star Gabourey Sidibe has picked up an unknown role on the film, as has "Eastbound and Down's" very funny Michael Pena.
They'll join Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy in the film that pits the little guy against a crooked Bernie Madoff type played by Alan Alda. Other than that, we don't have a lot of details. But now we know that the heist most likely won't involve taking the stairs. And before you chastise me in the comments section for making a fat joke at Sidibe's expense, you should know it was a lazy joke at Pena's expense. And no, not because he's Mexican. Man, I can't win with you guys. (Deadline)

From that time all these guys were in Paris together.
Trying to break up his stint of accepting bad movie roles, Eddie Murphy has decided to appear in a bad movie role that won't require a fat suit. Not to be worn by him at least. Murphy will be joining Ben Stiller in Brett Ratner's Tower Heist.
This the second time that Murphy was attached to this film. He was the initial star years ago while it was in development. He passed, then Chris Rock passed, and then Chris Tucker passed. Then Ben Stiller (the next logical choice) took over the role. No word yet on which supporting character Murphy will play, but I've got a good feeling that Ben Stiller will learn the consequences of touching his radio. (EW)

After letting Tower Heist sit on the shelf for almost four years, Universal has given it the green light with Ben Stiller starring, Brett Ratner directing, and Imagine's Brian Grazer producing. Because if anyone can make a project work that hasn't been working, it's the mastermind behind X-Men 3. Deadline has the deets:
Ben Stiller stars as the overworked manager of a luxury building who, along with other staff, lost their pensions to a Bernie Madoff-like Wall Street crook. It so happens that the fraudster is being held under house arrest in the luxury penthouse apartment upstairs, and the manager and four cohorts figure a heist will make them whole.
Bumbling, inept idiots try to pull off a major heist. Have we not seen this concept countless times already? And not that I have anything against Stiller, but I don't understand why he'd want to play this type of character again. He's already been a bumbling security guard twice in the Night at the Museum movies, and a bumbling (insert occupation) in almost everything else. Now he's relying on Ratner to save a stale concept. Unless that concept is a cupcake, I'm not seeing him succeeding.