Details on Steve Carell's Post-'Office' Projects

In case you haven’t heard, Steve Carell will be exiting NBC’s“The Office” sometime in April, weeks before the finale of season seven and ushered out of television with aguest starring rolefrom his personal friend, Will Ferrell.

His timely exit signals the end of a six-year agreement with NBC, made in 2005 at a time when his career was burgeoning beyond supporting spots in Ferrell comedies and a brilliant six-year stint as a regular correspondent on“The Daily Show.” Success came quickly, with his first starring role inThe 40-Year-Old Virgin, a SAG ensemble award for his dramatic turn inLittle Miss Sunshine, a flop (Evan Almighty), a hit (Get Smart), and a few delightful, animated leads inHorton Hears a Who!andDespicable Me.

But with“The Office” off his plate for good, Carell’s schedule is widening to take on several more projects a year in an exciting mix of upcoming comedic and dramatic performances.

Carell can next be seen inCrazy, Stupid, Love, a film he produced with Warner Bros and set for July 29, 2011.  (No relation to Julia Roberts’ similarly comma-ed drama. Less eating and praying, I expect.)  The marital comedy co-stars Julianna Moore, Ryan Gosling, Kevin Bacon, Marisa Tomei, and Emma Stone in the story of Cal, a family man whose life is turned upside down when his wife (Moore) demands a divorce and he’s thrust into the dating world with a handsome“wingman” named Jacob (Gosling).

For his next production, the 48-year-old actor is alsoreportedlyjoining the dramaGreat Hope Springs, opposite the inimitable Meryl Streep.  He will play Dr. Feld, a marriage counselor who attempts to foster reconciliation between a woman (Streep) and her husband (an unnamed actor).  The project re-teams Streep withDevil Wears Pradadirector David Frankel and is currently scheduled to shoot this August.

Carell will follow up that supporting role withBurt Wonderstone, a wacky broad comedy for New Line Cinema about a Las Vegas magician who accidentally kills his partner and must regain his magic mojo in order to compete with a rival illusionist. Fun fact:Wonderstonewas co-written by John Francis Daley (a.k.a. Sam Weir on“Freaks and Geeks”).

After those movies, Carell is attached to a few more potential picks for the latter half of 2011 and into 2012. One isThe Abstinence Teacher, a comedy that re-teams the actor withLMSdirectors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris andpairs him with showbiz darlingSandra Bullock. He would play a born-again soccer coach who falls for a sex education teacher (Bullock) in a small conservative town. Another isOf All the Things, a narrative re-telling of the documentary by the same name about Dennis Lambert, a musician in the’70s and’80s, and his comeback tour in the Philippines. He’s also still circlingGet Smart 2, though there have been no recent developments on bringing Carell and his rapidly rising co-star, Anne Hathaway, back to CONTROL.

However, the most recent announcement is Carell will leadDogs of Babel, an adaptation of Carolyn Parkhurst’s novel about a linguistics professor grieving over the death of his wife. The script, adapted by Jamie Linden (Dear John), is a moving portrait of depression and confusion in the wake of the tragedy, during which Paul desperately searches for answers about her final days by trying to communicate with the family dog (who saw the accident) and uncovering new revelations about the woman he married.  It’s a pitch perfect role for dramatic Carell (or DramatiCarell, if you prefer) and returns the versatile actor to the same doldrums that earned him critical acclaim forDan in Real Life.

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