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Bill Murray Teams with Barry Levinson for 'Rock the Kasbah' Comedy

by Ethan Anderton
September 3, 2013
Source: THR

Later this year we'll see Bill Murray share the screen with the impressive cast of George Clooney, Matt Damon, John Goodman and Cate Blanchett in The Monuments Men. But the star of Ghostbusters, Caddyshack and Lost in Translation will return to comedy next. THR has word that Barry Levinson will direct Rock the Kasbah, a film that will follow Murray as a burned out music manager who goes to Afghanistan on the USO tour with his last remaining client. But when he finds himself abandoned, broke and without a passport, he finds a young girl with a remarkable voice and embarks on a promising venture.

The girl stows away with Murray back to Kabul for a chance to compete on "Afghan Star," which is the equivalent of "American Idol" in Afghanistan (there's actually a great feature documentary about the show you should watch). The film will mark a reunion for Murray with Scrooged writer Mitch Glazer, who will script the comedy for Levinson. QED calls the union of Murray and Levinson, "the perfect team to capture the lunacy, heartbreak and hope of this story," and they hope others think so when the try to sell the project at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival later this month.

Levinson hasn't done anything worth note in comedy since Wag the Dog in 1997, but he has found success with the HBO drama You Don't Know Jack starring Al Pacino. Originally, the director was supposed to be at the helm of Black Mass next, but Johnny Depp dropped out, and the project fell apart. Levinson working with Murray sounds like a good move for the director who brought us great films like Rain Man, The Natural and Liberty Heights, and hopefully they spark something great here for a compelling story.

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