Kristina Anapau and Judy Greer had joined the cast in supporting roles. On March 13, 2003, it was reported that Christina Ricci had signed on to play the leading role of Ellie Harper, an associate producer on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn who is attacked by a werewolf after a car accident on Mulholland Drive. The same day, Scott Foley and Omar Epps were also cast as Ellie’s boyfriend Kyle and the chief of the animal control department Ben Taft, respectively. On March 17, 2003, Skeet Ulrich (who has previously starred in Craven’s Scream as Billy Loomis) joined the cast as Vince Winston, the burnout son of a millionaire who gets bitten and cursed by the beast. Other cast members included Milo Ventimiglia (Bo, a high school bully), James Brolin (Tyler Winston, Vince’s billionaire and estranged father), Shannon Elizabeth (Becky Morton, a party girl who gets brutally murdered under Santa Monica Pier), Illeana Douglas (Zela, an atypical fortune teller) and Robert Forster (Detective Harzel). Scott Baio himself along with Corey Feldman were cast as themselves. Pop singer and actress Mandy Moore was cast as Jenny Taylor, the opening victim who gets killed by the werewolf during a costume party sponsored by PETA. A Nightmare on Elm Street star Heather Langenkamp joined the cast in a small, supporting role as a TV reporter and John C. McGinley took part in the production as Jimmy's abusive dad. James Kallahan and Michelle Krusiec rounded out the main cast as Ellie’s co-workers Mark and Debbie. When production shut down and resumed with a new script, new roles were added and others were re-written. Skeet Ulrich was unsatisfied with his character’s transformation and chose to drop out of the film. On December 1, 2003, Joshua Jackson was cast as the new male lead (renamed Jack and retooled as Ellie’s boyfriend), along with Portia De Rossi (who replaced Illeana Douglas as Zela), Smallville regular Michael Rosenbaum (taking over James Callahan as Ellie’s assistant, now named Kyle) and R&B singer Mýa as Jenny, previously played by Mandy Moore. Lance Bass of *NSYNC joined the cast in a cameo appearance as himself. Scott Foley was originally supposed to reprise the role of Kyle (now turned into Ellie’s assistant) but ultimately dropped out as well. James Brolin, Robert Forster, Corey Feldman, Omar Epps, Heather Langenkamp and John C. McGinley were all written out from the new version