By Erin Free
“I’m going to London in March to film the next Muppets movie, and I’m hopefully shooting a movie called Mail Order Groom this summer with Steve Carell,” Tina Fey replied to US Weekly in 2013 when asked what she had on her dance card after the finale of her popular sitcom, 30 Rock. What, we hear you ask, is Mail Order Groom? This was one of the ever busy Ms. Fey’s failed projects, and it was initially set up as a vehicle in which the writer, producer, and actress would reteam with her Date Night co-star, Steve Carell.
Based on an idea by Tina Fey’s husband and 30 Rock producer, Jeff Richmond, Mail Order Groom was to star Fey as a desperately single woman who arranges for a mail-order husband from Eastern Europe, to be played, of course, by Carell. Fey’s fellow 30 Rock showrunner, Robert Carlock, penned the script with Friends writer and Joey creator, Scott Silveri, with a later polish applied by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the directors of Steve Carell’s Crazy, Stupid, Love, and now Tina Fey’s new release, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Potential directors for the project included comedy master, Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet The Parents); indie hero, Richard Linklater (School Of Rock, the Before Sunset series, Dazed And Confused); and Little Miss Sunshine co-director, Valerie Faris.
The project ultimately stalled for reasons never truly clear, and ultimately failed to get off the ground altogether. But after the chemistry that they exhibited in 2010’s otherwise underwhelming Date Night, Fey and Carell are a good bet to reteam in the future. “They’re the ultimate screen couple,” Date Night director, Shawn Levy, told FilmInk on the film’s set during production. “I don’t know why nobody has thought to put them together before. They make total sense together.” The performers certainly agreed. “We come from the same place comedically,” Carell told FilmInk of Fey. “I felt an immediate rapport. I’ve been a fan of hers for many years.” Responded Fey: “We both began in Chicago. I arrived there a few years later than Steve, and I remember being a student and watching him perform at Second City with Steven Colbert and Amy Sedaris. It was an unbelievable time there, and I was just in awe of him.”
