Olivia Wilde, Michelle Monaghan, Sarah Silverman & Jessica Biel Vie For ‘Burt Wonderstone’

Judy Greer Also In The Mix

Now that the forever gestating comedy “Burt Wonderstone” has its two leads in Steve Carell and Jim Carrey, the hunt is on to find a beautiful woman to star opposite these two guys, and the shortlist revealed by Deadline is pretty formidable.

Olivia Wilde, Michelle Monaghan, Judy Greer, Sarah Silverman and Jessica Biel are in the hunt for the unspecified role which we hope will be more than just eye candy in the film. Wilde — who is shortlisted for everything — showed she had some decent comedy chops in this summer’s “The Change-Up,” while Biel brought estrogen with her body to decent effect in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.” Monaghan is less convincing as a female lead in a comedy, and her apperances in laffers thus far like “Due Date” and “The Heartbreak Kid” have been forgettable. Silverman’s credentials speak for themselves, but our choice is the beautiful and very, very funny Greer. She’s run the gamut of drama to horror and of course comedy, but as you’ll recall she played the memorably breast-baring Kitty Sanchez on “Arrested Development,” and we think she’d be great to go toe-to-toe with Carell and Carrey.

With a fresh rewrite by none other than Jason Reitman, the film, originally penned by “Horrible Bosses” writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, revolves around a fading traditional magician who ditches his longtime partner and is upstaged by a hipper illusionist, forcing him to regain his love for magic. Again no word yet on the female role, but it seems the filmmakers aren’t necessarily looking for star power (though they wouldn’t mind it if they got it). While no exact production date has been revealed, we’d wager that with this thing casting up, “Burt Wonderstone” will probably roll by the end of this year or first thing in 2012.