While he may be leaving his star-making role on The Office in the dust, apparently Steve Carell is still very much hell bent on making an even bigger dent in the film world.

Mandate Pictures has announced (and hat tip to The Playlist) that the actor will be starring in the studio’s upcoming take on the novel, Dogs Of Babel.  Penned by Carolyn Parkhurst, the novel has been adapted into one of the most interesting unproduced screenplays around by writer Jamie Linden, and follows  “linguistics professor Paul Iverson (Carell) who comes home one day to find his wife dead in the backyard. The police rule the death as an accident but Paul isn’t quite sure and since the family dog, Lorelei, is the only witness to what happened he endeavours to teach her to talk so she can tell him exactly what happened."

Despite having credits including DEAR JOHN and WE ARE MARSHALL, writer Linden has really crafted one hell of a fantastic screenplay, and one that sounds like perfect material for Carell. Seemingly fitting a much more serious performance, say akin to his turn in DAN IN REAL LIFE, this will show a side of Carell that we aren’t trully privy to seeing very often. 

This joins GREAT HOPE SPRINGS as some really interesting projects that Carell will be backing post-Office. Here’s to hoping it isn’t the last.