Maybe the production of Being Flynn can serve as an explanation, but I’m nonetheless surprised that it’s taken more than a year for Paul Weitz to get back in business with Admission. Now, almost fourteen months after the first casting news emerged from the wild, Vulture reports that Tina Fey is not only still the top contender to lead, but that her participation could end up being a one-two punch of casting with Owen Wilson (with whom Weitz worked on Little Fockers).

Based on Jean Hanff Korelitz‘s novel (and scripted by Karen Croner), Admission follows “an Ivy League admissions officer named Portia Nathan (Fey) whose relationship with a 17-year-old recruitment prospect threatens to unravel her personal, romantic, and professional lives.” Wilson would factor into that by appearing as “a teacher at an alternative high school” that would serve as a love interest for Portia.”

While that might sound like it has the ingredients of a project typical to either name, Weitz is looking to get Admission done with Focus Features; this is, in turn, taken as a sign that things will be a little “classier,” while I’ll just be surprised when the Focus logo comes up during the previews at my local multiplex. (Six, maybe seven people will get where I’m coming from with that joke.) But — just to be serious for one second — I’d be 100% interested in seeing Fey and Wilson branch out and try something a little more serious on for size. When was the last time either did that?

Here’s a more thorough plot description (via Amazon):

“Portia Nathan, the overly dedicated 38-year-old Princeton admissions officer, finds purpose in her gatekeeper role. But her career and conscience are challenged after she visits a down-at-the-heels New England town on a scouting trip and meets Jeremiah, a talented but rough-around-the-edges 17-year-old who maybe doesn’t measure up as Princeton material. The real rub is how making his acquaintance forces Portia to confront a painful secret from her past that ties into some domestic discord with her professor friend, David, and may lead her into a career-endangering fracas with the admissions board.”

How do you feel about Admission, going by these early summaries and the potential casting?