Update: Variety has confirmed Carell has signed on to the film.
Steve Carell’s life after “The Office” just got a little busier. Dan Fogelman, writer of “Cars,” “Bolt” and Carell’s upcoming comedy “Crazy. Stupid. Love.” (more on that punctuation in a second) has his directorial debut in the works and Carell is eying the lead role. Titled “Imagine,” Carell would play the son of a “sixty-something Bruce Springsteen-type rocker,” who has no idea of his son’s existence until he discovers a long unopened letter written by John Lennon, who spills the beans on his existence. Doesn’t really sound like Lennon’s style, but we digress…
The little we do know about it makes gives an air of a more grounded “Dan in Real Life“-esque part instead of “Anchorman“-style silliness, though it all depends on how sentimental Fogelman is looking to get. Chances are it will deal a lot with the two trying to get along and connect despite their very different lifestyles, something that can either be very intimate in the right hands or throwaway cornball in the wrong ones. While he did write the least interesting Pixar jaunt yet, we were very impressed by his script for “Crazy. Stupid. Love.”
Oh yeah, and that punctuation. As you you might recall, “Crazy. Stupid. Love.” previously had commas instead of periods, but apparently the film was focus grouped and it was decided the commas had to go. If it were us, we’d just call it “Crazy? Stupid! Love:( “
Anyway, the now grammatically confident “Crazy. Stupid. Love.” will hit theaters April 22, 2011, while Carell adds “Imagine” to pile of potential projects including the previously announced “Raised by Wolfs,” “Mail-Order Groom,” “A Boyfriend For My Wife,” and the untitled Dennis Lambert biopic. Phew.