New Netflix Originals: Jason Segel Sci Fi, Jeff Daniels Western

Netflix announced a couple of new original projects this week that defy expectations in terms of their casting. Jason Segel, most recently of How I Met Your Mother fame, will star in a new sci-fi film, and Jeff Daniels, star of Aaron Sorkin's talky The Newsroom series, will play the villain in a new Western-themed original series.

Segel will star in The Discovery, a story about what happens when science proves that there is, definitely, an afterlife. Segel will be the story's protagonist, and Robert Redford will play his father. Rooney Mara will play Segel's love interest. Netflix has high hopes for the project and will reportedly give it a theatrical release when it's finished sometime next year.

Daniels will star in Godless, a Western series about an outlaw who is bent on the destruction of his former partner, played by Jack O'Connell. The series will be written and directed by Scott Frank and be produced by indie film darling Steven Soderbergh. It will also star The Walking Dead's Merritt Wever as a resident of a small New Mexican town populated entirely by women.

Godless will be a limited series, most likely consisting of six hour-long episodes. Netflix has not yet announced a release date for the series.