Only days after his co-host gig with Alec Baldwin at the Academy Awards, comedian/writer/actor Steve Martin will replace Dustin Hoffman in The Big Year, a comedy revolving around a competitive bird-watching competition tournament and three men out to win. The three men will be played by Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson.
The film’s based on the 1998 novel The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession, written by Mark Obmascik. The screen adaptation is penned by Howard Franklin, writer/director of the grossly under-appreciated 1990 Bill Murray comedy Quick Change. But then he also directed Larger Than Life and wrote Antitrust, so it gets fuzzy.
Fox 2000 has had this property for some time, Hoffman attached almost from the beginning.
Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films will produce, along with Curtis Hanson and Carol Fenelon over at Deuce Three Prods.
Shooting is set to start in May in Canada.
What do you think of Martin? Does he still have the comedic chops necessary for a lead role?