Amy Poehler will star in and produce untitled basketball comedy for Universal through her Paper Kite Productions.
Poehler will play a once-promising basketball coach who is asked to lead an NBA team. Ike Barinholtz, who will also appear in the pic, will co-write the script with David Stassen.
Scott Stuber and Dylan Clark will join Poehler as producers, producing through Bluegrass Films; Paper Kite’s Brooke Posch, Barinholtz and Stassen will serve as exec producers.
The film is quite timely after the San Antonio Spurs made history by tapping former WNBA star Becky Hammon as the first female assistant coach in the NBA. Hammon was named head coach of the Spurs Summer League team made up of first- and second-year players and led them to a Summer League title.
Poehler is hot off the worldwide smash hit “Inside Out” and will next be seen in Universal’s “Sisters” alongside Tina Fey and Barinholtz. She is shooting the New Line comedy “The House” opposite Will Ferrell.
Barinholtz and Stassen wrote the upcoming action/comedy film “Central Intelligence,” starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, and continue to write for “The Mindy Project,” which will start its fourth season on Hulu later this year.
Poehler is repped by 3 Arts, WME and Sloane Offer Weber & Dern. Barinholtz is repped by Principato Young, UTA and Morris Yorn Barnes Levine Krintzman Rubenstein & Kohner.
Stassen is repped by Mosaic, UTA and Morris Yorn Barnes Levine Krintzman Rubenstein & Kohner.
