After “Date Night” grabbed the pole position in last weekend’s box office, we knew that Hollywood would lobby hard to get reigning NBC monarchs Tina Fey & Steve Carell in another project. Quick.
And the L.A. Times is reporting the rom-com power duo didn’t have to look far for “Mail-Order Groom”; a script developed in part by Fey’s real life husband, Jeff Richmond. Not only is Richmond a co-executive producer at “30 Rock,” he also wrote the show’s theme song. So he probably got more than one shot at pitching to the flick’s female lead.
Which isn’t to say that the screenplay only has his fingerprints on it. He developed the idea with former “Friends” writers Robert Carlock and Scott Silveri before “I Love You Phillip Morris” scribes/directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra took over for a rewrite late last year.
The film centers on Fey as a lonely woman who orders a mail-order groom from Eastern Europe and gets more than she bargained for when a Borat-esque Carrel shows up. Undoubtedly-hilarious consequences quickly follow.
According to another Times article from December, Warner Bros. is looking at some pretty heavyweight directors with names like Jay Roach (“Meet The Parents”) and Richard Linklater (who directed Ficarra & Requa’s reboot of the “Bad News Bears”) being tossed around (which sounds promising to our ears — those guys are seasoned comedy vets).
Of course, this is all “schedule dependent” — which is a fancy way of saying these two are locked down most of the year delivering two of NBC’s biggest hit shows (on opposite coasts, incidentally). But it seems both still do love the material and would like to do it. Eventually. “Yes, maybe someday. It’s a hilarious and deeply weird script that appeals to both of us. We just need to clear the time to do it,” Fey said.
But that’s what summers are made for in Hollywood – and with both leads seemingly on-board (plus the Richmond/Fey connection), we give this a better than average shot of going into production in the near future. However, Carell already has one project lined up for when “The Office” wraps up its season; the comedy “Crazy, Stupid Love” with Ryan Gosling. He will also most likely be doing press rounds for “Dinner For Schmucks” which opens in July. Fey’s summer schedule appears to be clear right now, but with actress now the co-star of the number one movie in America that could change very, very quickly. –Whit Wagner