According to CinemaBlend, Giovanni Ribisi has signed on to the Seth MacFarlane-directed film “Ted”. The film will be MacFarlane’s directorial debut. News about Ribisi’s involvement in the film is the first official casting news about the film.

The film also written by MacFarlane, will follow a man who has to deal with his beloved teddy bear who has come to life due to to a childhood wish and has never left his side since.

Recently, Ribisi has starred in James Cameron’s “Avatar”, “Middle Men” and “Public Enemies”. He’s also played in “The Rum Diary”, one of Johnny Depp’s long-time movie projects.

Seth MacFarlane is notorious for his  bawdy, searing humor, seen in “Family Guy”, “The Cleveland Show”, and “American Dad”. MacFarlane also worked on “Johnny Bravo” and “Cow and Chicken” as a writer and animator (guess that makes sense, seeing how those two shows had a lot of intense, “mature” humor, even though that was mild-mannered considering the scope of MacFarlane’s comedic skills).

MacFarlane also provides the voices to many of his characters, and, in true MacFarlane form, will provide a voice for “Ted”.

The film doesn’t have a specific release date as far as news about a month and a day, but “Ted” is expected to be out 2012.

Giovanni Ribisi