Superbad director’s next?

UPDATE – Variety confirms our earlier report today and adds that Jesse Eisenberg (THE SQUID AND THE WHALE) is set to star.

No Judd Apatow didn’t direct SUPERBAD. You might think that from the way the film’s being marketed but the film was actually directed by Greg Mottola. He and Apatow had worked together on the failed (yet brilliant) Fox sitcom “Undeclared” and Apatow asked him to direct SUPERBAD. You’d never know it though. But Mottola, hot off the success of SUPERBAD, has signed on to direct his next film based on his own script. JoBlo.com can exclusively report that Mottola will next direct ADVENTURELAND, a period comedy set in the late-80s. The film will tell the story of a college grad ready to summer in Europe before starting grad school. Only problem is his father just got laid off and now he’s stuck at home in Long Island. Forced to get a job and support himself, he gets a job at the local amusement park Adventureland where comedy abounds and he falls in love. As a guy who shamefully took up an amusement park gig while at college, I can attest to the fact that there’s a lot of comedy to be mined at these places. Though the film will be based on Mottola’s own experiences at Long Island’s actual Adventureland, filming will actually take place in Pittsburgh this October. Sidney Kimmel Entertainment (UNITED 93, BREACH) will produce and finance the film.