First the good news: Steve Carell and Tina Fey, who I consider two of the funniest people currently on television, are going to star in a film together. It's called Date Night, and it's about a married couple whose attempt at keeping the romance alive leads to an evening of hilarity and merriment and shenanigans and whatnot.

Now the bad news: It's going to be directed by Shawn Levy, whose previous films -- Big Fat Liar, Just Married, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther, and Night at the Museum -- do not inspire a great deal of confidence. I'm seeing a lot of implausible slapstick and embarrassing pratfalls. I'd like to think Carell and Fey are smart enough to avoid something that will humiliate them -- but I used to think that about Steve Martin, too, and look where we are now.

According to Variety, Date Night came from an idea by Levy and was written by Josh Klausner, who did some writing on Shrek the Third and has worked as a second-unit director on several Farrelly Brothers films. (He also wrote and directed the 1999 thriller The 4th Floor.) Levy is making the Night at the Museum sequel right now, but Date Night will come immediately after that, most likely next summer, when Carell and Fey are both on hiatus from their NBC sitcoms.

Both performers are quick-witted, smart, and adept at improvising. I think their sensibilities mesh well, and I'd love to see them in a film that matched their style. (Ooh, what if Michael Scott visited NBC Studios on one of his New York trips, and ran into Liz Lemon? Would that be cheesy, like when Arnold from Diff'rent Strokes visited Ricky on Silver Spoons? It would be, wouldn't it? Damn.) What do you think: Will Date Night be a good fit? Or is it too soon to tell and we're all just talking out of our butts right now?