Will Ferrell Is The Flamingo Thief

I’d never heard of Susan Trott‘s novel The Flamingo Thief until about two minutes before typing this sentence, but how’s this for a blurb:

Everyone handles grief differently but none so differently as Tim Forester, multimillionaire Juice King, who lost his son a year ago. It starts with him quietly pocketing a china flamingo belonging to his three year old niece, Joy, and by his tenth flamingo has escalated to felony grand theft. He is shot by one person and shot at by another. He is losing his business and his wife but he is feeling better. Flamingo thieving makes his heart beat. He comes alive. In a way he is having a wonderful time. But how will it end? Quite possibly in prison. Flamingo Thief is a funny, bittersweet story of love, loss, family, fruit and flamingoes. The reader will never forget Tim Forester, his disastrous way of dealing with grief, and a heart that is bursting with love.

Sold. Click.

Variety have just reported that Will Ferrell is to star in the film adaptation, which is being written by Michael LeSieur, previously responsible for You, Me & Dupree and The Maiden Heist, Peter Hewitt’s art theft caper with Christopher Walken, William H. Macy, Marcia Gay Harden and Morgan Freeman. I’ve never seen the latter – indeed, it slipped into obscurity rather quickly when its distributor, Yari Film Group, became bankrupt.

There’s no director attached to The Flamingo Thief as yet, but Ben Stiller‘s Red Hour are producing. I’ll let you know how I get on with the novel.