We’ve known for a while that Sacha Baron Cohen was plotting to go where several have been before and make a spy spoof film, one that he’s been writing with Cedar Rapids / Wreck-It Ralph script man Phil Johnston. It now has a director attached, with Now You See Me’s Louis Leterrier landing the job.
The script, which is now titled Grimsby (cue much head-scratching from American audiences if that name sticks), finds a British black ops agent forced to go on the lam with his long-lost brother, a football hooligan who hails from the titular town. Cue madness and – probably – fraternal bonding, though hopefully without much schmaltz as that’s not really Cohen’s trademark.
According to Variety, Leterrier has been pursuing the assignment for a while now, winning the gig over the likes of I Am Number Four’s D.J. Caruso. It’ll be a chance for Leterrier to prove that the lighter hijinks of Now You See Me were not a fluke and that he can handle a full-on comedy.
No start date has been listed, but Paramount is providing the funding and we’d wager it’ll kick off next year, given that Baron Cohen is no longer involved in the Freddie Mercury biopic.