The Hangover: Part II may well be this summer’s most anticipated movie for those of us out of the PG-13 demographic. And as the movie draws nearer it’s May 26^th release date, the marketing is gearing up. The first look showed the wolf pack back in force. The plot synopsis promised crazy times to be had in Thailand, and the teaser trailer revealed a monkey has joined the cast!

Though Justin Bartha, who played groom-to-be Doug in the first film, was noticeably absent from the marketing, he recently assured Empire (via The Playlist) that Doug is not lost this go ’round, “There are similar circumstances, but he’s a little bit more involved.” Beyond this ambiguous assurance, the wolf pack has proved tight-lipped about their abroad adventures. However, one cast member has revealed some news about the impending sequel. Paul Giamatti recently told British GQ:

We shot it in Bangkok in December, which was amazing. I don’t think I’m supposed to reveal it entirely, but I play a really unpleasant, creepy guy who terrorizes them for a while. It’s like the first one, filled with all these odd little cameo parts. It was fun. They’re really good guys – we all had a great time.

With much of the sequel’s casting news has been whether or not certain high-profile people (former presidents, current action stars, relentless trainwrecks) would appear, it’s promising to hear a character actor of Giamatti’s caliber will have such a role.

In other news, Giamatti is also slated to star in Ari Folman’s next feature, The Congress, which has attracted the likes of as Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Folman awed audiences in 2008 with his biographical drama Waltz with Bashir. Blending striking animation with the harrowing tales of veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the Israeli director painted a haunting portrait of war and earned an Oscar nod for Best Foreign Language Film. It’s little surprise then that his latest will offer such a star-studded cast.

The Congress, which is based on the science fiction novel The Futurological Congress by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, will marry live-action and animation, and features Wright playing a version of herself, revealing the life of an actress as she ages. How this fits with the source material, which centers on a man struggling to make sense of the world after hallucinogenic drugs have forever altered his reality, remains to be seen, but early glimpses of the project’s aesthetic have movie nerds worldwide salivating.

Recently, Giamatti, whose role in the film is still unknown, spoke about the production, saying:

I had read the story. I like the writer a lot, which is one of the reasons I was interested in doing it…He’s an amazing writer. It’s a movie called ‘The Congress’ and it’s directed by a wonderful Israeli director Ari Folman who did Waltz with Bashir and half the movie is animated. It’s a sort of psychadelic science-fiction story. We’ve been shooting it and I’ve done a bunch of stuff and it’s pretty wonderful. It’s pretty great.

Beyond his enthusiasm, Giamatti has revealed little else about the film, which is slated for a 2013 release.

In the meantime, you can see Giamatti in the flesh this weekend, when writer/director Tom McCarthy’s Win Win opens in limited release.

Are you intrigued by The Congress? What do you make of The Hangover: Part II?