Now that her NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation has delivered its appropriately sweet swan song, Amy Poehler is leaping headfirst into Hollywood with projects that team her with the likes of Tina Fey (Sisters) and Paul Rudd (Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp). Now, she’s teaming up with another ace comic actor by boarding Will Ferrell comedy The House.
The pic, which Neighbors scribes Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien wrote with Cohen directing, is a two-hander about a married couple devastated when they lose their daughter’s college fund. Determined to earn a lot of money quickly, they enlist their neighbors in a plot to run an illegal casino out of their suburban house’s basement. Poehler’s will play Ferrell’s wife, who is also nervous about losing her daughter once she hits college age.
The House is aiming to roll cameras in Los Angeles in August, with a release date planned for next year. This will be Poehler’s next project now that she’s wrapped production on Sisters with Fey.
As for Cohen and O’Brien, they previously tackled chaos in suburbia in last summer’s Neighbors to absolutely side-splitting results, so it should be terrific to watch them again mess around with the comedically fertile setting. Especially now that Ferrell and Poehler are signed on for the lead roles, The House is shaping up into a real treat for comedy fans.
The film will mark the first time that the two A-listers have shared the screen since 2007’s hit Blades of Glory (unless you count Poehler’s little cameo as an entertainment anchor in 2013’s Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues). Since then, both have seen some huge career hits, with Poehler’s star particularly rising due to her work in Parks and Recreation and hosting various awards shows. She’s been on an enviable hot streak of late, and though Ferrell has seen a huge miss in recent times with “comedy” Get Hard, he’s also delivered some massive hits in the past few years, so neither is exactly hurting at the moment. The House should give the pair a chance to really spark together.