Steve Carell and Tina Fey could link arms again with ‘Mail-Order Groom’

“The Office” and “30 Rock” are tying the knot. Again.

Steve Carell and Tina Fey, the stars of the two NBC shows who also play an on-screen pair in the upcoming movie “Date Night,” may be planning yet another cinematic hook-up.

They’re attached to play an unlikely couple in a new romantic comedy called “Mail-Order Groom.” The film is written by Robert Carlock and Scott Silveri based on an idea that they created with Jeff Richmond, a co-executive producer on “30 Rock” with Carlock. And there’s an edgy twist: “Bad Santa” writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are doing a rewrite.

Warner Bros., which is developing the movie, is looking for directors. The studio’s shortlist includes Jay Roach (“Meet the Parents” and “Austin Powers”), Richard Linklater (the “Slacker” director who also directed Ficarra & Requa’s script on the “Bad News Bears” remake), and Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (the team behind “Little Miss Sunshine,” which starred Carell).

In “Date Night,” which is scheduled to hit theaters April 9, a married couple goes out for a quiet dinner and gets more than they bargained for when they become caught up in a mob plot. In “Groom,” a single woman orders a mail-order groom from Eastern Europe -- and lo, he turns out to be Steve Carell. (It’s got a little bit of a “Borat” sound to it too, which wouldn’t be a bad thing.)

Fey’s played the role of the single woman who resorts to desperate measures before, in “ Baby Mama,” the surrogate-mother comedy in which she starred opposite former “Saturday Night Live” costar Amy Poehler. Carell hasn’t previously starred as a foreigner on the big screen, but producers are hoping the bumbling antics he’s tried in movies like “Get Smart” translate here.

Development projects come and go, but this one looks to be a priority for the studio, which has a short window in which to shoot, given the actors’ busy television schedules. They’re tentatively targeting March or April, which would mean that by 2011 everyone could be looking at Carell and Fey on the big screen -- again.

steve.zeitchik@latimes.com