Steve Carell walks into the Succession creator's office...

Jason Schwartzman, Ramy Youssef, and Cory Michael Smith will also star in Jesse Armstrong's unnamed new project.

Steve Carell walks into the Succession creator's office...
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If his network had given him the ability to swear and maybe even do a bump of cocaine or two, Michael Scott would have fit right in with the Waystar Royco crew. (His Dundies rap was basically the middle management version of “L To The OG.” He and Kendall could have battled!) Fortunately for his sense of self worth, the character won’t ever see the inside of a Waystar boardroom. Steve Carell, on the other hand, is about to get his chance to chew on some of that juicy Jesse Armstrong dialogue. The Office actor has officially been cast in the Succession creator’s upcoming HBO film, alongside Jason Schwartzman, Ramy Youssef, and Cory Michael Smith.

Max announced the news today in a strategically blurred photo of the screenplay’s title page. Unfortunately, the actual name of the film was “melted” by some scattered snow (or perhaps Kendall’s favorite pastime) placed over the document. It looks like there’s an ‘E’ and maybe an ‘S’ in there, but we likely won’t know the film’s title for a while. 

What we do know, per the film’s original announcement in January, is that it will follow “four friends who meet up during the turmoil of an ongoing international financial crisis.” Moving past the dramatic irony of that particular plotline getting an update today of all days, it’s also clear from these choices that Armstrong is going for a sardonic tone similar to the one he employed in Succession. Carell is obviously an incredibly accomplished comedic actor, but his new cast-mates are right there with him. Multi-hyphenate Youssef has received multiple accolades including a Golden Globe and three Emmy nominations for his work on autofictive Hulu series Ramy (which also starred Succession actor Hiam Abbass) and directing for The Bear. In addition to his role as a Wes Anderson regular, Schwartzman recently gave an all-out performance as a predecessor to Stanley Tuccy’s Caesar Flickerman in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, and a much more subtle but no less effective one in bar mitzvah dramedy Between The Temples. Cory Michael Smith is newer to the scene, but has recently starred in both Saturday Night and May December. 

“I’m intrigued to discover whether being around so many brilliant actors and directors on Succession has in any way rubbed off on me. Let’s hope so,” Armstrong said in a statement, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m grateful to Casey Bloys, Francesca Orsi and the whole HBO team for backing this film so wholeheartedly and helping me pull together a dream team of cast and crew.” The unnamed project will be out some time “this spring.”

 
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