'SNL's' Jorma Taccone to Direct New Line Action-Comedy 'The Great Unknown' (Exclusive)

New Line is heading into The Great Unknown.

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The studio has picked up the action-comedy project, an adaptation of an Image comic book, with Michael Starrbury attached to write the script. Jorma Taccone, director of Saturday Night Live digital shorts and the feature MacGruber, is attached to direct, while Mark Gordon and Jennifer Todd are on board as producers.

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The comic centers on a slacker with delusions of grandeur who believes his so-called great ideas are popping up elsewhere. After failing to convince his friends and family that his mind is being pilfered, he goes on a quest to solve the mystery behind the idea thefts.

The comic, published in 2009 and 2010, was written and drawn by Duncan Rouleau, who is part of Man of Action Studios. Man of Action is behind the Ben 10 empire and are overseeing the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon on Disney XD.

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Drew Simon was instrumental in bringing the project to the Mark Gordon Co. and will oversee the development.

Gordon, a veteran producer whose credits include Speed and Saving Private Ryan, most recently produced Source Code. Todd, a former independent producer who now is president of the Mark Gordon Co., was most recently a producer on Alice in Wonderland and Celeste and Jesse Forever.

As part of Lonely Island, a comedy video-making trio that also includes Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer, Taccone has co-written and co-directed dozens of shorts for SNL. He made his feature directorial debut with MacGruber, the big-screen adaptation of the skit starring Will Forte.

Starrbury is writing Fully Automatic for Warner Bros and Silver Pictures. He made the coveted Black List with Watch Roger Do His Thing, and George Tillman is in preproduction on his script The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete.

Taccone is repped by UTA, Mosaic and Ziffren Brittenham. Starrbury is repped by CAA, Caliber Media and Eclipse Law. Rouleau is repped by Scott Agostoni.

E-mail: Borys.Kit@thr.com

Twitter: @Borys_Kit