Currently shooting magician comedy “Burt Wonderstone,” it looks like Steve Carell isn’t done playing with a magic wand just yet.
According to Hollywood.com, Carell is reportedly attached to star in an adaptation of Terry Brooks‘ “Magic Kingdom For Sale — SOLD!” No, it has nothing to do with Disney (though we imagine their lawyers might get a bit fussy about this title), instead it’s based on the series of books (of which this is the first) about a widowed lawyer named Ben Holiday, who finds an ad in a Christmas calendar for a magical kingdom. He forks over $1 million bucks and finds himself in Landover, where all is chaos, and he must unite the humans and all the various creatures to stop an evil demon. Okay.
At one time this was set up as a Stephen Sommers project with Akiva Goldsman producing, which makes a lot more sense, and while we love Carell and think he’s pretty damn funny, this high concept stuff can be a bit tricky to pull off (ahem, “Evan Almighty“). That said, he seems to enjoy walking the tightrope as he’s got the apocalyptic comedy “Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World” on the way and the totally fucking bonkers “Frank Or Francis” brewing as well. So maybe this is really just par for the course. And with more books in the series, this has the F-word potential Hollywood loves: franchise.
Craig Wright (“Lost,” “Dirty Sexy Money“) penned the script and the hunt will now be on for a director.