Previously-commenced shooting be damned, Jobs continues to expand its (surprisingly decent) cast with reckless abandon. Continuing such a surprising amount of decency, according to Variety, are J.K. Simmons, Kevin Dunn (Transformers), Elden Henson (Déjà Vu), Victor Rasuk (Che, Being Flynn), Lenny Jacobson (Celeste and Jesse Forever), and Giles Matthey (True Blood).

In order, Simmons will appear as Arthur Rock, a venture capitalist who took a chance on Apple; Dunn will be seen as the company’s chairman, Gil Amelio; Henson has been locked to play an Apple developer, Andy Hertzfeld; Rasuk is Bill Fernandez, the first Apple employee and one of their user interface architects; Jacobson has landed the part of Burrell Smith, an engineer; and Matthey has some big shoes to fill Jonathan Ive, the designer of the iPod.

Joshua Michael Stern (Swing Vote) has been directing the film for about a month now, with, as I’m sure you know, Ashton Kutcher starring as Steve Jobs. The rest of the cast is filled out by Josh Gad, Ahna O’Reilly, Lukas Haas, Matthew Modine, Dermot Mulroney, John Getz, Ron Eldard, and Lesley Ann Warren. Jobs is now expected to open at the end of the year.

Next, Variety also tells us that Craig Roberts (Submarine) and Alan Tudyk have signed for lead roles in the teen comedy Premature. They’re not starring, however; that duty goes to newcomer John Karna, who’s joined by Katie Findlay (The Killing‘s Rosie Larsen), Carlson Young (True Blood), and Adam Riegler. Dan Beers is directing the film, and has a co-writing credit with Mathew Harawitz.

Their screenplay takes its cue directly from Groundhog Day, as Premature follows one high school student who experiments with the possibilities when an “epic day” –  which, look at that, happens to be February 2nd — begins to incessantly repeat. Roberts and Tudyk‘s roles haven’t been disclosed, but one need not worry when considering their past work — no matter how small the former’s collective filmography may be.

Is Jobs‘ casting creating any optimism on your part? What do these first notes of Premature say to you?