Mike White + Molly Shannon = Year of the Dog

Posted by Maximum Fun on 22nd March 2006

Looks like Molly Shannon and Mike White are teaming up…

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – It’s dog days ahead for Molly Shannon.

The former “Saturday Night Live” player is in final negotiations to star in the comedy “Year of the Dog,” which marks the directorial debut of actor/writer Mike White (“School of Rock,” “The Good Girl”).

Shannon will play Peggy, a happy-go-lucky secretary who lives alone with her beloved dog Pencil. But when Pencil unexpectedly dies, Peggy embarks on a journey of transformation. The project has no scheduled start date yet. It is set up at Paramount’s specialty arm.

White wrote the screenplay for “Dog” with Shannon in mind. The two met on the short-lived Fox TV series “Cracking Up,” which Shannon starred in and White created.

Shannon is in West Virginia shooting “Evan Almighty,” where she is playing a real estate agent opposite Steve Carell. She appears in Sofia Coppola’s “Marie-Antoinette,” which will premiere at Cannes in May.

White’s only misstep in a sterling career so far was Cracking Up, which was quite the stinker. That said, Shannon shares White’s tone… hilarious, but disquieting. I have high hopes for this thing.