Variety reports that Jack Nicholson is close to a deal for a starring role in the next project from writer-director James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets).
The untitled romantic comedy would see Nicholson starring opposite Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, and Owen Wilson. Bill Murray was in talks for the part, but production begins in two weeks and Murray has reportedly lost interest in the project and dropped out of contact with the studio. If cast, Nicholson would play the father of Rudd's character, an executive trying to win Witherspoon's heart. Wilson plays a professional baseball pitcher who's also, of course, Witherspoon's other love interest
Brooks is producing the picture, along with Paula Weinstein, Laurence Mark, and Julie Ansell, and it's scheduled for a December 2009 release.