Once Vince Vaughn’s finished with The Watch, the sci-fi summer comedy that recently switched its name from Neighborhood Watch, the swift-talking comedian might have baby-daddy issues as the star of Starbuck, a comedy that has nothing to do with the massive national coffee chain.
Once Starbucks gets a hold of the premise, they might want to bring up a preventative lawsuit. DreamWorks is behind Starbuck, which is a remake of a French-Canadian hit about a man (Vaughn) who finds out he has fathered 533 children through his donation to a sperm bank. “All these beautiful babies, Mikey. That’s what I see.” The plot twists when hundreds of the children express a desire to meet their biological father, forcing Vaughn’s character – whose donor codename is “Starbuck” – to decide if he wants to step forward.
Variety, which breaks the story, says Ken Scott is on the hook to write and direct the project, which DreamWorks would like to start filming later this year. The original film has proven to be a hit with those who’ve seen it. It collected audience awards as the Palm Springs, Sonoma and Santa Barbara film festivals. It’s The Artist of the sperm-donor comedy circuit.
Vaughn’s beyond busy. Aside from The Watch, he has Stephen Frears’ Sundance film Lay the Favorite in the can, and plans to reunite with his Wedding Crashers co-star Owen Wilson for Shawn Levy’s Interns. Variety notes he’s also behind a potential mounting of The Rockford Files for Universal, but maybe he can produce that while filming Starbuck. We’ll see.
