Melissa McCarthy is definitely having one of the best years in Hollywood right now. She was one of the clear breakout stars of Bridesmaids, nabbed an Emmy for her sitcom work and has studios clamouring for her scripts. The latest company to come a-calling at her door is New Line, which has just bought the rights to her script Tammy.
While McCarthy hasn’t said if she’ll star in the film just yet, she did write it based on a character she created, and it’s clearly geared towards her strengths. Tammy follows a woman whose life falls apart when she’s laid off from work and finds her husband having an affair. To get away from it all, she heads out on a road trip, bringing along her diabetic, alcoholic, foul-mouthed grandmother (paging Betty White!)
“It’s about these two women who are not where they thought they would be, and then they kind of band together,” McCarthy tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s just my perfect tone. It’s so funny, and it also kind of breaks my heart.”
The actress also has plenty of other irons in the fire. She’s got her steady starring job on TV comedy Mike & Molly, is in negotiations to join Identity Thief alongside Jason Bateman and is in the midst of co-writing another movie for her to work on at Paramount. She’ll next crop up in Judd Apatow’s still-untitled Paul Rudd/Leslie Mann comedy, which is due to arrive here on December 21.