We’ve expressed our concerns before about Andy Samberg’s leading man career, after it appeared to crash and burn following Hot Rod, leaving him bruised, battered and sticking to supporting roles in other peoples’ comedies. But now it looks like Rashida Jones is giving him something more to do, with the LA Times reporting that he’s set to join her in rom-com-dram Celeste and Jesse Forever.
Jones wrote the script with actor/scribbler Will McCormack and has been shepherding this one through development for a while now. Last year, The King of Kong's Seth Gordon was primed to direct it, but now it appears that The Vicious Kind’s Lee Toland Krieger is taking the job instead.
Celeste takes a slightly different track from most romantic comedy dramas these days: while the couple featured are relatively young, they’re also getting divorced, and trying to figure out how to stay friendly.
"Our movie is about two people who love each other a ton but they don't know what to do with that love, and how do you let that person go," Jones tells the Times’ 24 Frames blog. "It's very different from: 'I like having sex with this person because I'm so modern but then, ooh, maybe I like them.' I'm less interested in that story. It's the version of When Harry Met Sally 20 years later, or Blue Valentine. It's really about how you break up with someone."
Now that she and her producing partners have the money to make the film (aside from director musical chairs, it’s had to deal with no less than two production companies going under), the plan is to make the movie when they’re both finished with their TV commitments for the year – Samberg on Saturday Night Live and Jones on Parks and Recreation.
It sounds like Celeste could be another film – along with this year's Kristen Wiig-penned Bridesmaids – that starts to redress the balance of female-focused funny flicks: "It's hard to find female leads that are flawed and interesting and dynamic. We wanted to write something that was in the vein of Judd Apatow – you talk like you actually talk with your friends – but with ladies," Jones says. "I want to do that and not just be someone's girlfriend or wife. I want to be the one to go on the journey."