Kevin James to Clean Up as “Zookeeper”

Kevin James’s, man of mild authority.

Variety reports that Kevin James–that would be “#1 box office attraction Kevin James”–is set to star in “The Zookeeper.” The film is being produced by the same lengthy group of producers who developed James’s hit “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.” Okay, I guess for the sake of professionalism I’ll list them all: “Happy Madison’s producing with James and Jeff Sussman through their Hey Eddie shingle and Todd Garner through his Broken Road banner.”

Jay Scherick and David Ronn wrote the script from Garner’s idea about “a lonely zookeeper who decides to leave his job because he can’t meet a girl, leading to intervention by the zoo’s animals.” Garner says he always had James in mind for the lead role.

So Kevin James will be able to strike another job off his list of “careers people don’t really think about.” There’s no doubt in my mind that if they release this at the right time–winter’s dead period–he’ll rack up another hit. My only question, based on the synopsis, is how are they going to handle the animals? Are they going to be animated? Or animatronic? I mean, they do stage an intervention. I’m guessing they’re going to try to find him a girlfriend in the zoo somewhere. Which animals seem like matchmakers? I’d say antelopes. Or macaques.