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Warner Brothers Pays Big for Steve Carell Driven Family Drama

by Ethan Anderton
December 18, 2009

With relatively sparse purchases being made from the spec script market in 2009, it's interesting to see that what could actually be the biggest spec script sale of the year occurred so very late in the game as Variety reports that a still untitled script by Dan Fogelman (Cars, Fred Claus, Bolt) that was written as a dramatic vehicle for Steve Carell has been picked up by Warner Bros. in a deal worth nearly $2 million. Similar to that of the Alan Rickman/Emma Thompson portions of Love Actually, the story has Carell as a father whose life unravels while he deals with a marital crisis and tries to manage his relationship with his children.

Fogelman's recent work has brought lackluster family entertainment in the forms of Bolt and Fred Claus, but if Warner Bros. was willing to shell out that much money for a spec script, then I hope it's leaps and bounds better than those previous efforts. WB picked up the script at the premium price because it was written with Carell specifically in mind, and now the project has been added to the huge list of films Carell must choose from to take on during his hiatus this spring/summer from "The Office." You might remember another film potentially on his plate is another comedy that will see him teaming up with Tina Fey again.

Although I'm a fan of "The Office", the show certainly won't be able to sustain itself much longer. I mean how much footage does that "documentary crew" need? Once the series has ended, I hope that Carell starts making more movies, both comedies and dramas and everything in-between. He's a genuine everyman, and a gifted comedian. He has a lot of work to do to make up for the fluke that was Evan Almighty though.

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