Jun 05,2010
Adventure’s Handbook casting
Posted by Jasmine with No Comments
When the spec script, “The Adventurer’s Handbook” — written by Jonah Hill, Matt Spicer and Max Winkler — made the rounds in Hollywood it was a white hot property and Universal jumped on the project allegedly in a seven figure deal.
Talent quickly circled the project. Hill and buddy Jason Schwartzman were pretty much immediately attached as the leads and then Jason Segel and director Akiva Schaffer, known for his SNL Lonely Island skits with Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone soon followed.
Inspired by the stories of explorers detailed in Mick Conefrey’s book “The Adventurer’s Handbook: Life Lessons From History’s Great Explorers,” the film was said to follow four childhood friends who embark on a global adventure.
Segel’s character was a talented musician and alcoholic, Hill’s role was that of an engineer isolated from his family with Schwartzman pegged to play a spoiled and cowardly three-time Grammy winner. But what about that fourth friend?
Well, the film stalled and took a backseat to several different projects from all the cast members, but in an interview conducted with The Playlist yesterday during a “Cyrus” junket (Jonah Hill’s next picture which hits theaters June 18), the actor and writer told us that the filmmakers were eyeing James McAvoy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Chris Pine for the role.
“It ended up with scheduling conflicts, we’d gotten greenlit, but because of Jason Segel and Jason Schwartzman’s television schedules we couldn’t shoot in the time slot,” Hill said of the ‘Handbook’ delays. “And then ‘Moneyball’ came up for me and I went aboard that.”
Hill has lined up three other films for the next nine months and it remains unclear when they’ll be able to return to “The Adventurer’s Handbook,” but it’s something he still clearly wants to do, but when still seems nebulous. “We’d have to figure out when all of us have time to make it,” he said, noting the cast’s busy schedules.
Could McAvoy, Pine or Gordon Levitt get offered roles if and when the time comes? It’s far too early to say, but it is interesting to hear the kind of talent they had in mind for the fourth character. Dare we say they’re all pretty fine choices (though obviously we like McAvoy and JGL the most).
