After proving himself as a director earlier this year with the dark comedy Bad Words, comic actor Jason Bateman has started to line up future projects to direct. While he’s just about to start shooting The Family Fang in New York next month, a drama in which he co-stars with Nicole Kidman and Christopher Walken, Bateman has already been attached to another comedy project for Universal Pictures, an “untitled FBI wedding comedy.”
With early drafts of the screenplay by David Flebotte and Phil Alden Robinson already finished, David Bar Katz has been signed on to rewrite the movie. Besides starring and directing the movie, Bateman will also produce with James Garavente for Aggregate Films, along with Bob Cooper from Landscape Entertainment. The project will be overseen by Universal senior VP of production Kristin Lowe and director of development Sara Scott.
Bateman will next be seen in the Warner Bros.’ drama This is Where I Leave You, out September 19, followed by Horrible Bosses 2 a few months later.
A long-time John Leguizamo collaborator, Katz is writing a number of other projects including The Man in the Rockefeller Suit for director Walter Salles, which will be released by Fox Searchlight, and the TV pilot “Sobering” for Showtime. He also wrote a play called “Philip Roth in Khartoum” that’s currently in development.
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