Jason Segel joins "Bad Teacher" faculty

LOS ANGELES – Jason Segel and John Michael Higgins are going back to school for "Bad Teacher," a comedy starring Cameron Diaz.

The Columbia Pictures project follows a foul-mouthed, gold-digging seventh-grade teacher who, after being dumped by her current boyfriend, sets her sights on a colleague (Lucy Punch) who is dating the school's model teacher.

Segel plays not the model teacher, who is not yet cast, but rather the gym teacher. Higgins plays the principal, a man named Wally Snur.

Filming starts next month in Los Angeles. Jake Kasdan directs.

Segel, one of the stars of "How I Met Your Mother," was last seen on the big-screen in "I Love You, Man" and next appears in "Gulliver's Travels" with Jack Black.

Higgins is a master thief in the scene stealing world, with small but juicy roles in movies like "Couples Retreat," "The Ugly Truth" and "The Break-Up."