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Steve Carell Won’t Star As a Rock Star’s Son in Imagine

Photo: Lisa Maree Williams/2011 Getty Images
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 14:  Actor and comedian Steve Carell arrives at the premiere of 'Crazy, Stupid, Love' at Event Cinemas Bondi Junction on September 14, 2011 in Sydney, Australia.  (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)
Steve Carell. Photo: Lisa Maree Williams/2011 Getty Images

Did the better-than-expected opening of Hugh Jackman’s Real Steel ($27.3 million) make studio execs say, “We should do more robot movies”? Probably! Did it make them say, “We should do more movies about estranged fathers and sons coming back together”? Judging by the obstacles hit by Dan Fogelman’s Imagine — about a sixties rock icon (now in his sixties himself) who discovers he has a biological son after reading a long-unopened letter from John Lennon — probably not. Steve Carell (for whom Fogelman had written Crazy, Stupid, Love) was both producing and slated to star as the newly discovered offspring, with Al Pacino playing his aged rocker dad, and Fogelman was set to make his directing debut. However, Vulture hears that the movie has just been put into turnaround by Warner Bros.; we’re told that when Carell decided to only produce, not act, the studio wasn’t comfortable with moving ahead solely with Pacino, and let them take the project elsewhere. Maybe the addition of some battling robots could seal the deal?

Steve Carell Won’t Star As a Rock Star’s Son in Imagine