August 3, 2012 | 4:10 pm

Segel leaves HIMYM, surprising stars in action flicks, and more Hollywood news

Posted by Cora Markowitz

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Jason Segel. Photo by Wikipedia/Eva Rinaldi

Segel Set to Leave
How I Met Your Mother, a successful TV show that will begin its eighth season in September, may not have main cast member Jason Segel in it for much longer. Segel has played character Marshall Eriksen since season one but now seems ready to move on. He’s had success in recent movies like The Muppets and The Five Year Engagement. In an interview with Austrian website Kurier.at, Segel said, “It’s great to do some ‘Rated R’ stuff again because I’ve been playing the nice guy for quite a long time now. That’s why I’m gonna quit How I Met Your Mother after the eighth season. I’ve hit my 30s, the TV show that I’ve been doing for eight years is coming to its natural end, I’m feeling much more like, ‘OK, now it’s time for Phase Three.’” Whether the show will continue on without him or make season eight its last remains unresolved, but the network seems eager to keep its hit show going. CBS President Nina Tassler told critics, “They know we want the show to come back next year. We are having conversations right now about extending it.”

Unlikely Action Stars
Though neither Jake Gyllenhaal nor James Franco are the first people who come to mind when thinking of action movie stars, both have an action film in the works. Gyllenhaal stars in End of Watch, a cop movie set on the mean streets of Los Angeles. Gyllenhaal sports a police uniform and a bald head for the movie, due in theaters September 21st. James Franco’s movie, which begins principal photography in September, is written by Sylvester Stallone and costars Jason Statham. The action thriller, called Homefront, stars Franco as a vicious drug lord named Gator.

Community Rap
Unlike her co-star Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, on the TV show Community, Alison Brie isn’t known for her rapping skills. Behind the scenes of Community, however, it seems to be a different story. In the season three gag reel, Brie raps about werewolves, Chevy Chase curses, and the entire cast seems to be having the time of their lives. The third season DVD set comes out August 14th and Community returns to NBC on October 19th.

New Role for Rashida Jones
Rashida Jones is sick of being so likeable. “I am generally cast as the dependable, affable, loving, friend-wife-girlfriend,” she said in an interview with the New York Times. In order to play a new role, Jones wrote one for herself. Along with her friend, actor Will McCormack, Jones wrote her first screenplay, telling a story about a couple in the midst of a divorce. The movie, Celeste and Jesse Forever, comes out on Friday and stars Jones as Celeste and Andy Samberg as Jesse. A studio made an offer for the film, on the consideration that Jones’ character would possibly be played by someone else. She turned them down. “I felt like this was the only opportunity I had to play this kind of part,” she said, “a character that’s maybe less than likable.”

Chris and Josh?
Fans of the old Nickelodeon show Drake and Josh will be overjoyed to hear that Josh Peck is coming to the big screen soon.  Formerly the overweight brother that fuelled a lot of the Nick show’s jokes, Peck has switched it up by taking on the role of action hero in the upcoming movie Red Dawn, in theaters November 21st.  The original Red Dawn, a Cold War movie about Russians invading a town in Colorado, has been updated in this remake; this time, North Koreans invade Washington State, leaving a group of teens to fight back. Peck plays the younger brother of Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson of The Hunger Games also stars.

Lawless Labeouf
Last appearing on the big screen in the third Transformers movie, Shia Labeouf will make his return with the movie Lawless, in theaters nationwide on August 29th. Labeouf co-stars with Tom Hardy, who played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. The pair play brothers struggling with a bootlegging business while pursued by the law in 1930s Virginia. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May to positive reviews.