Could Tom Cruise or Johnny Depp play a Canadian stud?
That's the level of Hollywood star power being sought to fill the restless jeans of a fertile sperm donor in a U.S. remake of Starbuck, Canada's most successful movie of 2011. It's a comedy about a man who discovers he's accidentally fathered 533 kids, who now want to get to know him.
"It will be an A-lister, absolutely," Starbuck producer André Rouleau told The Star Monday evening, following the announcement that he and Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios have teamed for what's being called an unprecedented cross-border film collaboration.
"We are looking for a star whom the American public will recognize as a star."
The remake deal, in which Spielberg played an active part, will have Rouleau and writer/director Ken Scott retain the same jobs for the Hollywood version as they had for the original Canadian production, something that just doesn't happen in the real world.
"It's a first, and I'm so proud of it, because it was my idea from the very beginning," Rouleau said from Montreal.
"Some people said that we were crazy, and it was never gonna happen –'You'll never be able to get the big star or big studio' – and see where we are today. We are with the best company in the world that respects directors."
Spielberg loved Starbuck, which has won film festival awards around the globe, include the runner-up audience prize at its TIFF premiere last fall and top honors at more recent fests in Santa Barbara and Palm Springs.
