When he’s not busy getting into trouble on stag trips in the Hangover films, Ed Helms can usually be found as Andy Bernard on the American version of The Office. But he’s just picked up another film role, agreeing to star in the remake of 2010 French comedy Le Mac.
Pascal Bourdiaux’s film saw José Garcia as a mild-mannered banker who is forced to impersonate a notorious gangster and pimp. It sounds like the sort of fish-out-of-water role Helms can pull off with ease.
The script is being written by Johnny Rosenthal, one of several writers who have pitched one of two competing takes on Bad Santa 2 to Dimension Films and Miramax. He brought up the idea of remaking Le Mac to film backers Media Rights Capital, which has struck up a partnership with Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films to thrust the idea into development.
Helms has recently cropped up in the likes of Cedar Rapids, Semi Pro and Meet Dave. He’ll next be seen in the Duplass brothers’ new comedy Jeff Who Lives at Home and heard in the animated take on Dr Seuss’ The Lorax. And he also has several movies lurking in the clouded waters of development, including an untitled film that finds Civil War re-enactors being transported back to the real thing and True North, about a talk show host who awakens from a coma with a new, friendlier personality. We’ll have to wait and see whether Le Mac joins those movies in limbo…