This weekend Melissa McCarthy will be arriving in theaters courtesy of the new comedy Identity Thief. The movie is her first starring film role since she became a breakout star in Paul Feig's Bridesmaids, earning a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her performance. She has landed a number of new projects since then - including the upcoming The Heat with Sandra Bullock, which will be out this summer - and today she has added three (yes, three) new movies to her slate.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Mike & Molly star has paired with her husband Ben Falcone to start her own production company called On The Day, and is now set to make three new films titled Michelle Darnell, Cousin Irv From Mars and Just Do It. Two of the projects are set up at Universal (where she did Bridesmaids and Identity Thief) while the last title on the list is set up over at Fox (where she starred in The Heat).
The first movie on the list doesn't have any plot information available, but was apparently the project is based around an original character created by McCarthy evidently named Michelle Darnell. The actress, who co-wrote the script for the upcoming comedy Tammy, will be writing the script alongside Falcone and their fellow Groundlings member Steve Mallory.
The second project, Cousin Irv From Mars, is an adaptation of an upcoming children's book written and illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist and former Seinfeld writer Bruce Eric Kaplan. The story follows the adventures of a boy and his cousin who is from outer space,. Kaplan will be writing the screenplay himself and McCarthy will star.
Finally there's Just Do It, which is actually the shorter name of the book on which the film is based: Douglas Brown's Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On their Sex Lives for 101 Days (No Excuses!). The book is a memoir about a couple that tried to "rekindle their 14-year marriage with a 101 day sexual marathon." McCarthy and Falone will also be working on the script for the project and McCarthy is attached to act as well - though the trade doesn't specify what role.
