Phil Lord & Chris Miller Eye Romance 'The Rosie Project'

Given the year they’ve had, thanks to "The Lego Movie" and "22 Jump Street," Phil Lord and Chris Miller can afford to be choosy. Indeed, they looked at "Ghostbusters 3" and decided it wasn’t for them, and now they’re taking a look at bringing one of the buzziest books of the year to the multiplex.

Deadline reports that Lord and Miller are developing Graeme Simsion‘s "The Rosie Project," with and the possibility they could direct. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber ("The Spectacular Now," "The Fault In Our Stars") are working on the latest draft of the script, and here’s the Amazon synopsis so you can see why it has attracted this level of talent:

The art of love is never a science: Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.

Rosie Jarman possesses all these qualities. Don easily disqualifies her as a candidate for The Wife Project (even if she is “quite intelligent for a barmaid”). But Don is intrigued by Rosie’s own quest to identify her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on The Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie―and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.

It goes right down the middle of the plate of quirky rom-com and has mainstream appeal written all over it. But let’s hope it’s delivered with a bit more nuance and some genuine wit. Again, whether or Lord or Miller direct hasn’t been decided, but considering their crafty ability to switch genres when the mood requires, this could be a good gear shift.