Steve Carell is being lined up to replace Sacha Baron Cohen as the star of Dinner With Schmucks, the long-developing DreamWorks remake of Francis Veber’s French comedy Le Diner de Cons.
And, in another development, director Jay Roach – who had been attached to the project before exiting stage left – may also come back on board, as DreamWorks seeks to put the film on the fast track.
Cohen was first attached to the film, in which a group of friends have a monthly competition to bring the stupidest person they can find to a dinner party, back in 2006, following Borat’s success. He was to have played a lovable idiot who winds up accidentally tormenting his host, but his attachment to the film has wavered of late.
Carell, who’s got Get Smart 2, The Beaver and Brigadier Gerard on his plate, hasn’t signed on yet, but he’d be a perfect fit for a role that was once played on the London stage by Ardal O'Hanlon. Watch this space.