Steve Carell and Kiera Knightley to star in SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

In his first starring role since The Office, Steve Carell will star in Seeking A Friend For The End of The World. This film is the directorial debut of its screenwriter, Lorene Scafaria. Kiera Knightley is currently in negotiations to take on the female lead. Production is slated to begin in May on the film co-financed by Mandate Pictures and Indian Paintbrush.

The film takes place at "a time when a giant asteroid is headed toward earth, almost certain to destroy the planet.  Carell plays a man who sits in his car with his wife, and when they hear over the radio that a last chance attempt to destroy the asteroid has failed, she runs off and doesn't come back. Knightley plays a neighbor who passes along a letter mistakenly delivered to her from the man's high school sweetheart, who wants to be with him when everything stops. His neighbor offers to drive him there and they develop a relationship along the way as all humanity figures out how to spend final moments."

Anonymous Content's Steve Golin and Joy Gorman will produce with Steven Rales and Mark Roybal from Indian Paintbrush. Mandate's Nathan Kahane and Nicole Brown are serving as executive producers. Scafaria, best known for scripting Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, drew strong interest from a number of actors and actresses who met with her about making the film. She sparked to Carell and Knightley. Several distributors are interested, but it's unclear if the financiers will make a deal before the film is shot. 

I love Carell, this sounds like the perfect film for his sensibilites. Nick and Nora's was great and Scafaria has a great nack for writing cool characters. 

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