Will Ferrell will steal yard decorations in The Flamingo Thief

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Will Ferrell has signed on to star in an adaptation of the novel THE  FLAMINGO THIEF, where he’ll play a grieving father/husband who takes to stealing pink flamingos as a coping mechanism. Sounds like your typical oddball role for Ferrell, but you throw in the grieving father/husband part and you know it’s all bound to come to a head by the end of the film. No “shake and bake” or “Stay classy, San Diego” to close the credits.

Ferrell had dabbled in dramatic roles already with MELINDA AND MELINDA and last year’s EVERYTHING MUST GO, neither of which I’ve seen. The latter is sitting in my Netflix Q like it’s paying rent. I just haven’t been in a hurry to see a Will Ferrell movie where I learn a life lesson. It’s not that I don’t think he can pull it off, it’s just that I’d rather see him in any incarnation that starts with Ron and ends with Burgundy or the like.

THE FLAMINGO THIEF is based on the novel by Susan Trott and the screenplay by Michael LeSieur (YOU, ME & DUPREE) was on the 2011 Blacklist (as was EVERYTHING MUST GO). So, there.

Here’s the book’s synopsis from amazon:

Everyone handles grief differently but none so differently as Tim Forester, multimillionaire Juice King, who lost his son a year ago. It starts with him quietly pocketing a china flamingo belonging to his three year old niece, Joy, and by his tenth flamingo has escalated to felony grand theft. He is shot by one person and shot at by another. He is losing his business and his wife but he is feeling better. Flamingo thieving makes his heart beat. He comes alive. In a way he is having a wonderful time. But how will it end? Quite possibly in prison. Flamingo Thief is a funny, bittersweet story of love, loss, family, fruit and flamingoes. The reader will never forget Tim Forester, his disastrous way of dealing with grief, and a heart that is bursting with love.

No director is attached just yet and the pic is being produced by Ben Stiller’s Red Hour films. As is usual for these types of projects, it could be a sleeper hit or gone to disc in the blink of an eye and sit in my Netflix Q for years.