The last feature film that Larry David wrote was Sour Grapes. The 1998 comedy, also directed by David, starred Steven Weber and Craig Bierko and although it put them in a very Curb Your Enthusiasm type situation--one cousin wins big on a slot machine with a coin borrowed from the other --it just didn’t have the same effect without David in front of the camera. Or, maybe the film fell flat because he was also the man behind it and the comedian doesn’t exactly have a track record of directing, having never even helmed an episode of either Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld, which he helped create back in the day.
For his next big screen project, still untitled, he's fixing both things by not just starring in it but also by hiring Adventureland’s Greg Mottola to direct. With Larry’s well documented love for his fellow bald men with glasses, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he turned to Mottola for his new feature; however, when casting his nemesis, the comedian went with Mr. Handsome himself, Jon Hamm. According to ShowBiz411, the Mad Men star and frequent funny man--just look at his work for 30 Rock, SNL and Funny or Die--has just agreed to play the villain to Larry’s ‘hero’ in what is being described as an improv comedy in the vein of Curb.
The untitled film’s “script-ment” (a script/treatment) is being developed by David with his usual televisions cohorts Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel. All three are Curb and Seinfeld veterans and also helped script Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator, meaning they are more than familiar with the loose, improvisational style where funny situations are created for the actors to work within. The details about the actual plot are scarce but ShowBiz suggests that it will follow “David as a Larry David like character–-but with a different name. He’ll get into the same kind of situations as Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Well, if that wasn’t vague enough for you, I would guess that one of these ‘Larry David situations’ will involve an encounter with the too good-looking Jon Hamm and turn into an extended conflict between the pair. David is looking to shoot the film this fall so don’t hold your breath on Curb Season 9. But with David writing for and working with Hamm, this could be just as good.
