Segel joins Hill and Schwartzman in 'The Adventurer's Handbook'

By Sarah Sluis

Today's most exciting mash-up of comedy talent is The Adventurer's Handbook. Jason Segel will be joining Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman in the comedy, which "SNL" writer/director Akiva Schaffer will direct. The movie centers on four childhood friends who are disenchanted with their lives, and decide to embark on an adventure together. Their inspiration comes from tongue-in-cheek guide book The Adventurer's Handbook: Life Lessons from History's Great Explorers. Written by a BBC documentary filmmaker, the book combines practical information, like how to find water in a desert, with more eclectic advice, like the fact that many explorers assembling a team choose an annoying, disagreeable person to be on their expedition, so the other members of the team can bond over their mutual annoyance. Segel will play a musician turned alcoholic and backup piano player. Hill has already signed on to play an engineer and, I suspect, by virtue of his occupation, the leader of the expedition. Schwartzman's role will be a variation of the egomaniac he has done so well (Funny People, Marie Antoinette), this time as a three-time Grammy winner with a sense of entitlement to match. Since the movie centers on four friends, one role remains uncast.

This summer, adventure comedies set in other worlds have done poorly at the box office. Land of the Lost and Year One, despite their A-list casting, failed to ignite at the box office. However, it appears The Adventurer's Handbook will be set in the present day, so perhaps it will end up mimicking The Hangover, which took its mission (rescue the missing groom) to a jackpot $256 million (and counting) box office. Hill wrote the script along with Max Winkler and Matt Spicer, who both have a smattering of credits between them, including work on "Clark and Michael," a web series that starred Michael Cera. Combined with "SNL" veteran Schaffer, who has worked on the "SNL Digital Shorts" segments that have distinguished the show recently, this project could be a comedy collaboration to watch.