‘Funny Boys’ Movie in the Works with Julian McMahon (VARIETY Exclusive)

“Actor Julian McMahon and Charlie Loventhal are partnering with Grey Eagle Films on a movie adaption of Warren Adler’s novel “Funny Boys,” Variety has learned exclusively.

Paradigm will package the project. Adler is best known for the novel “The War of the Roses” which spawned the 1989 film and a play.

Set in the 1930s in Brooklyn and the Catskills, “Funny Boys” follows the story of a young man with a promising future in comedy who gets a gets a job as a “tummler” to entertain and host at a lavish hotel casino — only to discover that he’s become involved with mobsters.

McMahon’s credits include “Nip/Tuck,” “Charmed” and the first two “Fantastic Four” films as Doctor Doom. He’ll next be seen in Syfy’s “Childhood’s End” miniseries.

Adler’s “The War of the Roses: The Children,” the sequel to the 1989 film, is being co-produced by Grey Eagle’s Jonathan Robert Adler and David Permut of Permut Presentations.

Other Grey Eagle projects include “Target Churchill,” co-developed with Solution Entertainment Group; “Mourning Glory,” to be adapted by Karen Leigh Hopkins; and TV series “Capitol Crimes,” based on Adler’s Fiona FitzGerald mystery series, co-developed by Sennet Entertainment with Eric Overmyer as showrunner.”