It's almost time for Dinner.
Jay Roach's long-gestating remake of Francis Veber's Le Diner de Cons is nearing the starting gate, reports Variety.
Spyglass Entertainment will partner with Paramount to greenlight Dinner for Schmucks, starring
Steve Carell and
Paul Rudd, and finance the majority of its budget.
DreamWorks has committed to take a 33% stake in the film once it secures its own financing. When DreamWorks and Paramount parted ways, the former held onto the property, though Par retained the right to come in as a financial partner and distributor.
The stars are clearing their schedules to begin shooting in October.
The original film was released in 1998 in France with the remake rights sold to DreamWorks that summer. Steve Kloves was originally set to adapt the script for US audiences with Veber - who spends most of his time in LA - directing.
Ultimately, the pic went through several incarnations and attached
Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen, however, quietly unattached his name from the project last year.
The original film, in which
Thierry Lhermitte played a stuck up dinner party host who makes sport of the most pathetic invitee he can find (the late Jacques Villeret), sold nearly 10 million tickets in France for Gaumont. On the French charts it ranks as the 12th highest-grossing French film ever and 34th overall.
http://www.hollywood.com/news/Carell_and_Rudd_Sit_Down_to_Dinner_With_Schmucks/5407918
