Bullock and Carell May Have Faith in ‘The Abstinence Teacher’

Religious zealots take notice. After delivering the performance of her lifetime in a meat, potatoes and gravy Oscar winning-dish, Sandra Bullock might be going against the grain with The Abstinence Teacher, a picture filled with Tom Perrotta’s trademark humor. Going toe to toe with Bullock, the proposed match-up would include the born again Christian type to be played by Steve Carell — the project would be reuniting with the directing pairing of Little Miss Sunshine‘s Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Despite being removed from the film for some time, Dayton and Faris appear to be firmly attached to the project — as The Playlist (via Production Weekly) also mention that LMS producers Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa and Polly Johnsen are backing the project. Fox Searchlight, Focus and Summit Ent. are certainly keeping a close eye. 

The project was first picked up by Warner Independent Pictures label before the book was even published, and piping hot directors of the moment Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris were quickly attached to the project – but when the WIP capsized, then I imagine duo looked elsewhere. At one point they were close to receiving a greenlight for 20th Century Fox’s Used Guys but the price tag was to high and nothing came out of that.  

Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise kids. It’s got the proverbial good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. It’s the kind of place where parents are involved in their children’s lives, where no opportunity for enrichment goes unexplored. Ruth Ramsey is the human sexuality teacher at the local high school. She believes that “pleasure is good, shame is bad, and knowledge is power.” Ruth’s younger daughter’s soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim belongs to The Tabernacle, an evangelical Christian church that doesn’t approve of Ruth’s style of teaching. And Ruth in turn doesn’t applaud The Tabernacle’s mission to take its message outside its doors. Adversaries in a small-town culture war, Ruth and Tim instinctively mistrust each other. But when a controversy on the soccer field pushes the two of them to actually talk to each other, they are forced to take each other at something other than face value.