'Once' Director Helming Steve Carell in 'Dogs of Babel'

John Carney, who directed the acclaimed musically-themed Once, has just inked a deal to direct Dogs of Babel, Mandate’s adaptation of the Carolyn Parkhurst novel starring Steve Carell.

The novel, described as a tragic story of love and loss, centers on a linguistics professor (Carell), who returns home one day to find his wife dead in their backyard. Though police rule her death an accident, the professor is not quite sure. With the only witness to the death being the couple's dog, the grief-stricken man endeavors to teach it to talk in the hopes that he can uncover what really happened.

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Carell is producing, as are David Heyman, Corey May and Dooma Wendschuh.

Lionsgate International is handling international sales on this title.

Babel will serve as the Irish filmmaker’s biggest project to date, and his first American-produced one as well. Despite the attention he received from Once, which won Spirit Awards in the foreign film category, CAA-repped Carney has kept working on small Irish projects with movies such as Zonad, which garnered several Irish Film and Television Awards, and the upcoming drama The Rafters.