Jonah Hill, Jason Segel to Become 'Adventurers'

More Judd Apatow-inspired goodness is on the way from Universal, only he doesn't have anything to do with it. However, The Adventurer's Handbook will star Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, and Jason Schwartzman, all of whom have famously crossed paths with Apatow. Even though Funny People has not been the rousing success Universal hoped it would be ($25 million in four days, and likely somewhere below a production cost break-even point of $75 million in the final analysis), the studio is still confident in his style of filmmaking, recently signing Apatow to a three-picture deal. An extension of that, it seems logical to conclude, is to get in bed with the actors who pop up in his movies. Without latching on to Apatow, it's still extending that brand name. The script by Matt Spicer, Max Winkler, and Hill is based on Mick Conefrey's book, The Adventurer's Handbook: Life Lessons from History's Great Explorers. Four childhood friends - with one still to be named - bond together through a series of adventures inspired by Conefrey's stories, setting a course for adventure, their minds on a new romance. Or something along those lines. It's your basic buddy picture formula with a bit of Goonies-style adventure mixed in. According to The Hollywood Reporter:

"Segel would play a talented musician who never got his act together, becoming a backup piano player and an alcoholic; Hill plays an engineer, isolated from his family; Schwartzman is a spoiled and cowardly three-time Grammy winner."

There's definitely potential in the pitch, particularly if there's more Jason Schwartzman than we saw in Funny People.