The rise of Ed Helms has been pretty phenomenal. The former “The Daily Show” correspondent got a big career boost joining the third season of “The Office” in 2006 as the hapless Andy Bernard and then a few years later rocketed to stardom in “The Hangover.” But the actor has been playing it cool since the megahit film. Aside from “The Hangover Part II,” he’s also had a major starring role in “Cedar Rapids” which hit screens earlier this year but Warner Bros. really really want to stay in the Ed Helms business. Back in 2009, Helms was attached to time-traveling Civil War comedy at the studio and now he’s got another project brewing there.
Variety reports that Imagine Entertainment‘s Brian Grazer is set to produce a recently purchased pitch by Rob Pearlstein as a possible vehicle for Helms. “True North” is a high concept dramedy in which the actor would play “a selfish talk-show host whose plane crashes, putting him into a two-year coma. When he awakens, he finds that his appearance has been surgically altered and then tries to track down his family to reconnect with his former life.” Yeah that sounds… interesting at the very least, and certainly a different direction for the actor but possibly too wacky to be plausible?
We’ll see how this develops, but certainly the actor is hugely in demand and has a very tight schedule due to his duties on “The Office (which he will return to this fall). We’d wager before either of those developing WB comedies happen, the studio will want to reunite The Wolfpack one more time for the inevitable “The Hangover Part III” which already has a story outline involving breaking Alan out of a mental hospital. Helms also has the the Duplass Brothers-directed “Jeff Who Lives At Home” co-starring Jason Segel awaiting a release and he’ll pop up this Thanksgiving in “The Muppets.” So, “True North” aside, there is a lot on the horizon for Helms.