DreamWorks Studios has bitten into the original comedy pitch “Raised by Wolfs” from writer Les Firestein. Steve Carell is attached to star and produce through his Carousel Prods.

While the studio has its muzzle shut on the plotline, the odd spelling of Wolfs is apparently a reference to the main character’s last name.

Vance DeGeneres and Charlie Hartsock of Carousel are executive producers on the project.

Carell, who is repped by WME and Media Four, most recently starred in “Date Night” and provided the lead voice for the animated film “Despicable Me,” which together have grossed $328 million worldwide this year. His next comedy, “Dinner for Schmucks,” opens Friday. On Tuesday, NBC confirmed that the actor will leave "The Office" after one more season.

Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Studios have nailed down the majority of the cast for Spielberg's next film, the period adventure-drama "War Horse." The young protagonist, Albert, will be played by a relative unknown (in the States anyway), Jeremy Irvine (right), who apparently has already worked up a solid reputation on the British boards. Emily Watson and Peter Mullan are playing Albert's parents; Benedict Cumberbatch is playing World War I soldier Major Stewart; and David Thewlis will play Lyons. Tom Hiddleston and Stephen Graham are also in talks to come aboard as two more military officers. Niels Arestrup, Celine Buckens, Nicolas Bro, David Kross, Leonard Carow, Rainer Bock, Robert Emms and Patrick Kennedy have also been cast. Lee Hall and Richard Curtis have adapted the script from the Michael Morpurgo novel and Nick Stafford’s ensuing stage adaptation. "War Horse" starts shooting in the U.K. at the end of the summer for an Aug. 10, 2011, release date.

A story began pinging around the Web this morning that Steven Spielberg had cast "Savage Grace" star Eddie Redmayne as the lead in his next film, "War Horse." DreamWorks Studios, which is releasing the film, indicates that the rumor is not true, and that while Spielberg is in fact casting the movie right now, he has yet to settle on anyone.

After several stops and starts on other projects, Steven Spielberg has chosen the boy-and-his-horse drama "War Horse" as his next directing effort at DreamWorks Studios. Spielberg will also produce with Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Revel Guest. Lee Hall (“Billy Elliot”) and Richard Curtis (“Pirate Radio”) are adapting the screenplay from the 1982 novel by Michael Morpurgo and the recent stage adaptation by Nick Stafford. The book tells the epic tale of a friendship between a boy and his horse who become separated but continue to be intertwined as they try to survive the horrors of World War I. “Horse” was a runner-up for the Whitbread Award in the U.K., where it also played onstage at the National Theatre and New London Theatre. Variety first broke the story today.

Jeremy Slater is taking off into unfriendly skies. With producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Slater has crafted an airport thriller pitch and sold it to DreamWorks Studios. Kurtzman and Orci, who produced “Eagle Eye” for the company, are producing the untitled thriller, which Slater will write. Motion Theory’s Mathew Cullen and Sean Sorensen are executive producers, with Cullen attached to direct the project.

After casting a wide net for its search of a young actor to play Hugh Jackman's son in "Real Steel," DreamWorks and director Shawn Levy have tapped 11-year-old Canadian Dakota Goyo for the part. The story, set in a future world where robot-boxing has replaced human mano-a-mano, follows a former boxer (Jackman) who gets a shot at redemption when he teams up with his long lost son to train an unusual robot for a shot at the championships.

Jared Stern has been hired to write the family comedy “Home Movies” for DreamWorks Studios, with Shawn Levy producing. The idea was originally hatched inside the studio, and Stern came aboard to help develop and write it. Nash Entertainment's Bruce Nash and Bob Kosberg are producing with Levy.

In another sign that the spec market is exercising its muscle memory, TV writer-producer Justin Adler has sold his original feature comedy script “The Escort” to DreamWorks Studios. With echoes of “Dutch” and “Planes, Trains & Automobiles,” the road-trip story line involves an irresponsible flight attendant who is forced to escort a 14-year-old passenger to Boston after their plane is grounded. Tom McNulty (“Date Night”) is producing.

Stacey Snider and Steven Spielberg's Martin Luther King Jr. feature project is finally moving forward. The DreamWorks Studios toppers have hired Oscar-winning playwright and screenwriter Ronald Harwood ("The Diving Bell and the Butterfly") to pen a biographical screenplay about the slain civil rights leader. Harwood is a strong choice for the assignment. His script work on "The Dresser," "Butterfly" and "The Pianist" earned him Oscar nominations, with the last taking the prize. And at 75 years old, the South Africa-born writer lived through the late 1950's and '60's, when King's oratory and influence inspired a massive civil rights movement until his murder in 1968. As the studio points out, this is the first film treatment of King to be officially authorized by the King Estate -- or a portion of it, at least, since some of the King children balked when the project was announced last year. So Harwood will have access to all the intellectual property King copyrighted during his lifetime, including speeches, books and other works. “His record of achievements makes him particularly suited to portraying this deeply personal story against the background of such a turbulent time,” said Mark Sourian and Holly Bario, who run production at the studio. Harwood, who is repped by ICM and Judy Daish in the U.K., also penned a TV movie about Nelson Mandela and adapted the Alan Paton book, "Cry the Beloved Country," among other film work. Spielberg, who has directed biographical and historical material in "Schindler's List," "Amistad" and "Munich," is not attached to helm the MLK project. But he is producing along with Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones. Spielberg also has long been developing an Abraham Lincoln biopic. Americans celebrated the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday yesterday. King was born on January 15.

In a competitive-bidding environment, DreamWorks Studios has picked up a pitch from screenwriter Andrea McCloud called “I Saw You.” Based on a comics anthology edited by Julia Wertz, the pitch involves four intersecting love stories derived from missed-connections ads. George Tillman Jr. is developing the project to direct. The pitch sale was in the mid-six figures. State Street Pictures partners Tillman, Bob Teitel and Matthew Pritzker originally optioned the book. Tillman and Teitel will produce; Pritzker and Wertz will executive produce. Rene Rigal will co-produce. Wertz’s “I Saw You...” collected comics based on real-life missed-connection ads run on Craigslist and in local papers. Random House’s Three Rivers Press imprint published the trade paperback in February. The emsemble romantic comedy has become a subgenre unto itself lately, with films such as “Love Actually,” “He’s Just Not That Into You” and the forthcoming “Valentine’s Day” using the intertwining-storyline format. As it moves back into film production, the newly independent DreamWorks is fashioning a number of potential comedy projects. The studio has in development Chris McCoy’s untitled college-set comedy; Mike Culbert and Mike Pellettieri’s workplace comedy “Forever 21,” with Elizabeth Banks attached to star; Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley’s comedy about a stranded reality TV star, “Cal of the Wild”; and Michael Besman, Michael Zam and Jaffe Cohen’s action comedy, “Wife vs. Ninja.” McCloud, a relative newcomer who is repped by WME and Energy Entertainment, wrote “Cover Your Assets” for Lionsgate. The writer originally drew buzz for her screenplay, “ABBIE+WEBBER 4EVER.” The CAA-repped Tillman directed “Notorious,” “Men of Honor” and “Soul Food.”

Less than a month after beaching “Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” new Walt Disney chief Rich Ross has put the kibosh on “Wedding Banned,” a romantic comedy to have starred Robin Williams, Anna Faris and Diane Keaton. The studio has put the project into turnaround, and the production company, Mandeville Films, is free to shop it around town. “Banned” revolves around a long-divorced couple (Williams and Keaton) who kidnap their daughter (Faris) on her wedding day to prevent her from making the same mistakes they did. The parents rekindle their relationship as they elude cops and the angry groom. The movie was being groomed for a shoot in 2010, but this week Ross made the decision to untether the project. One factor in the decision was the poor showing of the Robin Williams comedy “Old Dogs,” which has grossed just $35 million since its November 25 opening. The decision to put “Banned” into turnaround has Disney-ites wondering what exactly constitutes a Disney studio movie in the Ross era, especially since “Banned” seemed to be in the mold of other studio hit comedies such as “The Proposal” and “Wild Hogs.”

Looks like the DreamWorks deal is finally done. The Reliance-funded company will have more than $1 billion to play with for its planned slate of as many as ten pics per year.

Next up are of course the distribution question (odds-on money is still on Universal, though don't be surprised if another distrib steps up with a sweetened deal) and which staffers make the jump. Paramount on Friday eliminated some of the potential unpleasantness and bureaucracy by releasing any employee under contract.

The less-discussed but equally critical question is which projects live and die in the transition. Agents and producers have been on tenterhooks for months as they wait for the company's status to be determined, and a lot of scripts and pitches have waited in limbo with them. Those agents, writers and producers are probably the happiest people (besides all the principles) that this is finally moving toward a conclusion.