TV showrunner Josh Schwartz will make his feature directing debut with Fun Size, a teen comedy that his Fake Empire shingle is developing for Paramount.
Schwartz is producing with his partner Stephanie Savage as well as Anonymous Content.
Paramount picked up the spec script by Colbert Report scribe Max Werner in May 2010. And while several projects are vying for Schwartz’s attention as a director, including the coming-of-age drama Looking for Alaska, he fell hard for the comedic script, which centers on a sarcastic teenage girl who is forced to take her little brother trick-or-treating on Halloween, then loses him and must find him before their mother finds out.
A sticking point had been timing. Paramount was unsure if the movie should be made in time for this Halloween or Halloween 2012. The studio has now made the decision to go for this year, so the movie, while still not officially greenlighted, according to the studio, is shooting for a late spring start in St. Louis.
Lis Rowinski is overseeing Fun Size for Fake Empire.
Schwartz, repped by WME and attorney Joel McKuin, co-created Chuck and Gossip Girl and created The O.C., writing and exec producing the series, which developed rabid followings and put the showrunner on the map as someone in touch with the youth demo.
Werner is repped by WME and Bard Dorros at Anonymous.
Fake Empire’s movie division has a first-look pact with Paramount (its TV side has a deal with Warner Bros. Television). Among the projects in development is Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick, about a high schooler who discovers that the female Eastern European exchange student his family is hosting is an assassin.
