There can’t be many more films floating around in development left for Steve Carell to become attached to; we half expect him to crop up as a cameo in Kathryn Bigelow’s Bin Laden pic. But he’s found one more new movie to slap his name onto: Universal’s Lunatics.
The plot will be adapted from Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel’s novel, which finds to New Jersey soccer dads getting into a minor feud. But the squabble doesn’t end with their petty rivalry: it escalates until there are worldwide consequences and the pair of fools is running for their lives. Carell will co-produce the movie and is looking to play Philip Horkman, a pet store manager who volunteers as a referee during kids’ matches at weekends. He clashes with an angry father of one of the players, and things spiral out from there.
Barry, an established comic novelist whose work has been filmed before (most notably as 2002’s Big Trouble) and Zweibel, a Saturday Night Live veteran with a long screenplay resume and who currently works on Curb Your Enthusiasm, will adapt the script themselves. Which makes us think it could be a funny film.
But that will depend on the all-important next step – finding a good director...