Jason Bateman to star in and direct FBI wedding comedy for Universal

Jason Bateman will make his third outing as an actor-director with an FBI-themed wedding comedy (as yet untitled) for Universal Pictures.

Plot details have not been revealed, though Bateman will direct from a script by playwright David Bar Katz, who is working on a new take after earlier drafts were penned by David Flebotte and Phil Alden Robinson. Bateman is also producing the film with James Garavente through their Aggregate Films banner, along with Landscape Entertainment’s Bob Cooper.

Bateman, the former child actor and “Arrested Development” star, made his directing debut in March with “Bad Words,” a potty-mouthed black comedy about a grown man who crashes a national spelling bee after finding a loophole in the rules.

Released by Focus Features, Universal’s specialty-films label, “Bad Words” garnered positive if not rave reviews but failed to connect with a broad audience, collecting less than $8 million at the box office.

Bateman is currently in pre-production on “The Family Fang,” which he’ll helm and star in opposite Nicole Kidman and Christopher Walken. He will next be on screen in “This Is Where I Leave You” and “Horrible Bosses 2,” both from Warner Bros.

Katz, meanwhile, is working on “The Man in the Rockefeller Suit” for Fox Searchlight.

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