07.17.09 ED HELMS IS GOING TO CEDAR RAPIDS

Well this sounds like it might be cool.  Ed Helms is attached to star in Cedar Rapids, a spec script (read: an entire script, not a pitch based on some exec’s derivative, half-baked idea) written by Phil Johnston. To be produced by Sideways writers Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor.

The story centers on a wholesome and naive small-town Wisconsin man (Helms), who, when his role model dies, must represent his company at a regional insurance conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where his mind is blown by the big-town experience.

Phil Johnston wrote the script on spec. He was a broadcast journalist in the Midwest who moved to New York to attend film school at Columbia. [THR]

Other facts about Cedar Rapids I learned from Wikipedia: Ashton Kutcher, Elijah Wood, and Ron Livingston all once called Cedar Rapids home.  Cedar Rapids’ nickname is “the City of Five Seasons,” for the traditional four seasons, and a fifth season which is a time to enjoy the other four. Cedar Rapids was the setting for a musical, “The Pajama Game.”  Also, I think I heard this somewhere, Cedar Rapids’ most popular postcard is a dog wearing a baseball cap.  Here is a picture of some people enjoying Cedar Rapids: