Steve Carell already was attached to a wide range of prospective films when he was working on "The Office." Now that he'll soon be free of television constraints -- he leaves the program next month after seven seasons -- we can expect a flurry of Carell moves. Some of them may actually even become films.

Last week came reports from Deadline that the actor was in negotiations to star opposite Meryl Streep in the middle-aged marital drama "Great Hope Springs." (It's presumed to be a supporting role.) Tuesday  afternoon, producers confirmed this story that Carell will star in the drama "The Dogs of Babel," an adaptation of Carolyn Parkhurst's novel about a professor who finds his wife dead in the backyard, with a dog the only witness; he attempts to speak to the canine to understand and come to terms with what happened.

Meanwhile, there remain a host of projects that Carell signed on for or expressed interest in months or even years ago: a comedy about the unlikely rock star Dennis Lambert titled "Of All the Things," a comedy about a mourning magician called "Burt Wonderstone," and of course the long-plotted "Get Smart 2." (The actor will next be seen in this summer's "Crazy, Stupid Love," a marital comedy with Julianne Moore and Ryan Gosling that he finished shooting last year.)

What's interesting about Carell's more recent choices is they seem to take him in dramatic directions -- although he doesn't want to take on a role to make a statement. "I just never want to be precious or pretentious about choosing something in order to switch it up, or do a 180 just to show people what I'm capable of," he told 24 Frames when we interviewed him recently.

Still, while most of his movies have been comedies -- and hits, if modest ones, at that -- Carell received some of his strongest reviews in his most serious role, the widower drama "Dan In Real Life" back in 2007.  Even his signature film role in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" ladled on the heart and some drama. His Michael Scott lunacy may have left the strongest impression, but it may not carry over to the big screen.

--Steven Zeitchik

twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Steve Carell in "Evan Almighty." Credit: Mercier/Universal Studios

 

In just a few weeks, Ed Helms will attempt to make the jump from television personality to bona fide movie star in “Cedar Rapids,” a  Fox Searchlight comedy that marks his debut as a leading man.

Helms, who was first seen on TV for five years on “The Daily Show” and now is part of the ensemble cast of “The Office,” has been in films before –- most memorably as a guy who cowers before his girlfriend in “The Hangover.” But “Cedar Rapids” presents a new set of challenges for the actor, who is known mostly for playing the nice-guy sidekick.

This week at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Helms sat in a faux insurance office that  Searchlight had set up on Main Street to replicate the building seen in the movie.  Seeming almost as polite and earnest as his character in the movie, the wide-eyed Tim Lippe, Helms insisted he wasn’t worrying about the TV-to-film transition.

“Well, um, I don’t know what is ahead. But as long as I’m excited about what I’m working on, I’m not gonna get too hung up on the format,” the 37-year-old said. “ 'The Office' is in this really exciting transitional phase — it’s kind of awesome.”

The actor was referring, of course, to Steve Carell’s imminent departure from the sitcom. Carell is still filming his final episodes, and Helms on Sunday swore he has yet to discover who will be stepping into the show’s boss role. However, on Wednesday, it was reported that Will Ferrell will help ease the changeover, appearing on the show for four episodes.

Still, Helms was unsure of how the show will “find equilibrium in the long run. Like, who will be the boss? That question has, I think, 100 answers that will probably get explored. It’s basically like one of the biggest story lines in the history of the show, so it will get milked out over a long period of time and there won’t be, like, an easy, simple answer. But there will be a lot of us vying for the position.”

Helms is also a part of another project that many are anticipating: “Hangover Part II,” due out in May. Those hoping “The Hangover” sequel evolves into a full-blown franchise may be disappointed, the actor said, as he believes the second film will be the last in the comedy series.

“I doubt it,” he said, when asked if there would be a third installment. “I don’t think Todd [Phillips, the director] would let that happen.... I would hope that ‘The Hangover’ kind of has a dignified legacy, if that makes any sense.”

Look for more with Helms in the coming weeks.

-- Amy Kaufman in Park City, Utah

Twitter.com/AmyKinLA

Photo: Ed Helms poses with a cutout of himself in Park City. Credit: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times.

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After years of Carell trying to squeeze in movies between his hectic "Office" shooting schedule, the star is essentially ready to tackle any scripts that he likes. And now, finally, he has the time to make them. Carell has a small shooting window in October, when "The Office" takes a pause. And then, come March, when his last season with the show wraps, he's wide open.

The actor and his representatives have been entertaining all comers with ideas on how to fill his schedule. One movie we're hearing that could make the grade: "Burt Wonderstone," which sources say Carell is circling and could well come aboard.

The New Line comedy is about a Vegas magician who accidentally kills his partner and must regain his mojo (or, as the logline has it, his "hocus-pocus focus") while simultaneously competing with a rival. The film offers the broad comedy with a hint of bathos that we've seen Carell demonstrate as Michael Scott and in film roles over his career, most recently as the eager schlemiel Barry in "Dinner for Schmucks."

Producers all around town want Carell because they know any film with him pretty much goes on the fast track. Studios, after all, love the actor, and it's not an idle affection. Of the five live-action comedies in which Carell has had a leading role, four have grossed nearly $100 million or more.

Even without Carell, "Wonderstone" is already a priority at New Line. The script has had a few writers, but it recently got a new draft from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the scribes who also wrote the studio's "Horrible Bosses," next summer's buzzed-about comedy with Jason Bateman and Kevin Spacey (it's essentially "Office Space" with a murder).

Still up for grabs on "Wonderstone" is the director's chair, though if Carell makes a deal, that won't be a problem filling with a top-tier name (with the star's consent, of course).

Carell still has a sequel to "Get Smart" and a host of development projects he couldn't get to while his TV stardom hovered in the background. There will be less of him in our living rooms, but a lot more of him on the big screen.

--Steven Zeitchik

Twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Steve Carell in "Get Smart." Credit: Tracy Bennett / Warner Bros.

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For an actor with such a flourishing television career, Steve Carell has been pretty active on the big screen. As he's worked on "The Office" over the past six seasons, the actor has also found time to star in half a dozen live-action features and voice two animated films, including his newest hit "Despicable Me" and his upcoming comedy "Dinner for Schmucks," slipping in movie shoots during his short television hiatuses.

In reporting on a story about his new film "Dinner for Schmucks," we asked Carell about the upcoming shift in his career that will take him off the "Office" to an even more fertile big-screen life. Although he's starred in a reasonably wide range of films -- "Get Smart," "Dan in Real Life" and "Evan Almighty" among them -- Carell has worked a similar tactic in many of them: the gap between what his character believes and what the audience knows, milking that alternately for comedy and drama.

But Carell, who next stars in a marital-crisis comedy opposite Julianne Moore called "Crazy, Stupid, Love," says that when he makes his big-screen decisions post-"Office," he won't be looking to branch out for its own sake.

"I just never want to be precious or pretentious about choosing something in order to switch it up, or do a 180 just to show people what I'm capable of," he told 24 Frames. (Incidentally, he didn't sound like a man who had an interest in returning to the series, as some of the bargaining-ploy theorists have had it.)

As for the reaction to his departure from "The Office" and his landmark Michael Scott character -- which has ranged from abject horror to mournful head-shaking to those conspiracy theories -- Carell said it's caught him a little off guard.

"I'm surprised by it, frankly. I didn't think it would be that big a deal," the actor said. "I'm just not renewing my contract. I'm surprised there's any sort of hubbub about it."

--Steven Zeitchik

Twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Steve Carell and Paul Rudd in "Dinner for Schmucks." Credit: Paramount

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EXCLUSIVE: It's rare for a seasoned television director to make the leap into feature film. But there's nothing ordinary about the story of "Late Bloomer," the tale of a man who only begins hitting puberty as an adult.

Randall Einhorn, a veteran TV director who has done some heady work on shows such as "The Office," "Modern Family" and "Parks and Recreation," is making just such a leap. Einhorn has been hired by Alcon Entertainment to direct "Late Bloomer," a dramatization of the real-life story and memoir of Hollywood journalist Ken Baker.

Baker's tome, "Man Made," is about a rare condition that caused him not to go through the normal paces of puberty as a teenager; in fact, as his body produced a female hormone, he had many female characteristics, including lactaction. At age 27, he had surgery that finally corrected the problem and brought on the onset of puberty (not to mention numerous female conquests).

Although the book has the hallmarks of a drama (sometimes outlandishly so), the script, from Joe Nussbaum with a rewrite by Paul Kaplan and Mark Torgrove ("Just Shoot Me!," Spin City," a "Marvin the Martian" movie), will play up comedic elements too. Think "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," only here the stunted adolescence is developmental.

Alcon, which produced the 2009 hit "The Blind Side," is committed to making the film, with Warner Bros., per their agreement with the company, scheduled to release the movie next August.

As for Einhorn, he joins the ranks of a rare group. Originally a cinematographer who helped create the look of the American "Office," the 46-year-old segued into directing television shows (he also counts shows as diverse as "Survivor" -- for which he has been nominated for Emmys -- and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" among his credits).

Einhorn is swimming against the current -- television series now frequently hire feature directors, but it's unusual for a director go the other way ("He's Just Not That Into You" director Ken Kwapis is one of the few to do it). But then, it's never too late to bloom. Just ask the protagonist of Einhorn's new film.

--Steven Zeitchik

http://twtter.comZeitchikLAT

Photo: Steve Carell and the rest of the cast of "The Office." Credit: NBC

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With "Date Night" performing reasonably well at the box office this weekend, it's natural to ask when Steve Carell and Tina Fey might come together again on the big screen.

The two are, as we wrote about back in December, working on a movie called "Mail Order Groom." Warner Bros. is developing the comedy  (which was partly conceived by Fey's real-life husband and "30 Rock" co-executive producer Jeff Richmond) about a lonely American woman who orders an Eastern European, Borat-like soldier as a beau.

Interviewed as part of a Calendar piece before the "Date Night" opening, the pair told The Times' Denise Martin that the movie was still very much a possibility -- it's just a matter of scheduling. "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. (Both she and Carell have limited shooting time given their television responsibilities.)

"It could be really good," added Carell. The actor appears in the upcoming "Dinner for Schmucks" and has a voice role in "Despicable Me" but has not yet chosen a new movie.

Before teaming on "Date Night," Fey and Carell spent years admiring each other's work from afar, first as budding comics at Chicago's Second City and then as network stablemates. But they rarely crossed paths until it occurred to their agents, both based at WME, to put them in a comedy together.
 
"As soon as I heard she was in, I was in," Carell said. "Almost in complete disregard for anything else."

-- Denise Martin and Steven Zeitchik

Photo: Tina Fey and Steve Carell in "Date Night." Credit: 20th Century Fox

Five or six years after they propelled films like "Anchorman" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" to box-office success, Paul Rudd and Steve Carell are teaming up again in July's "Dinner for Schmucks," for which a trailer was released this week.

A remake of the French comedy "Le dîner de Cons" (a hilarious movie we happened to watch in French class?), the film is about a group of colleagues who host a monthly dinner during which they compete to see who can bring the biggest idiot to the meal.

In the film, Rudd plays Tim, a man seeking a promotion who learns that to secure a job bump, he will have to attend said ethically dubiousdinner. When he literally runs into Barry (Carell) -- a dork with a bad haircut who likes to drink Silk-brand milk straight out of the carton while watching animal programs on TV -- he thinks he's got his man. That is, until his friend finds out about the plan, and, not surprisingly, disapproves. There's also another schmuck, played by Zach Galifanakis, who apparently reads minds and sports a creepy beard.

It's nearly impossible not to laugh when Carell is playing zany, awkward characters (think "Virgin"). Rudd also seems to be reprising a role he knows well: the well-meaning straight man  (think "I Love You Man"). The two character types do seem a bit tired at this point, and we want to dismiss the film as more of the same easy fodder -- but the trailer still leaves us hopeful. Maybe it's Carell's full-on commitment to playing a weirdo or the wild card that is Galifanakis,  but based on the trailer, we're buying a ticket.

-- Amy Kaufman

Photo: Paul Rudd and Steve Carell star in "Dinner for Schmucks." Credit: DreamWorks.

Ed Helms' career is looking a lot like Steve Carell's these days. It's not just that each got their break on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," evince a geeky likability, practice a similar brand of deadpan  humor and currently star on the same hit television show "The Office (though that's part of it).

It's that both are seeing their dance cards fill up remarkably quickly -- and with not dissimilar projects.

Helms will anchor his first major feature when he shoots "Central Intelligence," a Walter Mitty comedy about an accountant (Helms) who inadvertently gets involved in an espionage plot. Sources now say the movie is to shoot this summer, with Universal, which is making the movie, currently looking for a director.

("Central Intelligence," incidentally, bears a similar premise to Carell's "Get Smart:" Dorky guy bumbles his way through unlikely high-stakes world, though Helms' trademark persona is dorkier, while Carell's is more deluded. And there's another Helms-Carell connection: the man who made Michael Scott famous is producing the untitled Civil War project in which several re-enactors get transported back to the land of Ulysses S. Grant; Helms plays one of the re-enactors and also helped write the script. That one, at least, is just in development, as is another project, the bromantic makeover movie "A Whole New Hugh" from the Judd Apatow incubator. So Helms will at least have time to breathe before he gets mixed up in those.)

There is, however, "The Hangover 2," which will shoot next fall during another "Office" hiatus, and in which Helms reprises his uptight, henpecked Stu Price character. All this comes after Helms finished shooting the Alexander Payne traveling-salesman dramedy "Cedar Rapids" last fall. And there's another, smallish movie on the way. That's a pretty hectic work pace for a guy with a network show.

Indeed, it's scheduling that's the big bugaboo for Helms, since, like Carell, the actor can only shoot during his hiatuses from "The Office." The schedule for the NBC hit was reportedly juggled so Carell could shoot "Dinner for Schmucks" at the end of 2009, which also enabled Helms to shoot "Cedar Rapids." But there's only so much juggling one can do without joining the circus.

Helms' name has also surfaced in connection with the Ron Howard infidelity comedy "Your Cheating Heart,"  which would have offered the bonus of seeing Helms play opposite Vince Vaughn. But it now looks like, for timing and other reasons, Helms won't appear in that one. And reports of his appearance in "Daddy's Home," a project in which he plays the uptight new husband to Will Ferrell's wild man ex-husband probably won't come to fruition; at this point, at least, it doesn't look like Helms is going to star in that one.

Helms' appeal as the embodiment of the straight-laced and the uptight in all of us has clearly resonated in Hollywood. We can only hope it will on the big screen too -- we'll be seeing a lot of him there in the coming months.

-- Steven Zeitchik

Photo: Ed Helms and a chicken in "The Hangover." Credit: Frank Masi / Warner Brothers