Larry David to Star in Fox Searchlight Comedy To Be Directed By Greg Mottola (Exclusive)

Larry David is ready to be a movie star.

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The kvetching comedian, best known for creating and starring in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and co-creating NBC’s classic sitcom Seinfeld, is in negotiations to star in an untitled comedy that Greg Mottola is in negotiations to direct for Fox Searchlight.

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David came up with the idea and is working with Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel, who worked with him on Seinfeld and Enthusiasm. There is no script but the funny men are working on a treatment for what will be a improv-based storyline, much like David’s acclaimed HBO show. Plot details are being kept under wraps.

David is producing with Berg, Schaffer and Mandel along with Bradley Thomas.

Berg, Mandel and Schaffer have plenty of improv comedy experience. They co-wrote The Dictator with Sacha Baron Cohen and are also producers on the movie; they also worked on Baron Cohen’s Bruno. The duo is repped by UTA and Hansen Jacobson. Mandel is repped by WME and Hansen Jacobson.

Mottola, repped by UTA, directed the hit comedy Superbad, which starred Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, as well as Paul, the sci-fi comedy featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. He just signed on to write with an eye to direct The Marriage Plot, an adaptation of a Jeffrey Eugenides novel that producer Scott Rudin is developing at Columbia.

WME-repped David is a comedic tour de force in the TV world, but despite a three decade career, he has largely stayed out of the feature film world. He recently cameoed in the Farrelly Brothers’ Three Stooges movie and starred in the 2009 Woody Allen movie Whatever Works.

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