We still can’t believe it’s happening, but the forthcoming rom-com “An Ex To Grind” starring the unlikely pair of Benicio Del Toro and Cameron Diaz, and based on the chick-lit best seller by Jane Heller, has found a writer.
Jeremy Garelick, who wrote the Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Aniston vehicle “The Break-Up” and did some uncredited work on the blockbuster “The Hangover,” will bring his talents to the story about “a star athlete (Del Toro) who for years supports the dreams of his waitress wife (Diaz). Cut to several years later. His career is cut short by injury, he has has morphed into a beer-swilling couch potato while she has become a big success in business. She plans to divorce him and is horrified to discover she will have to pay alimony to maintain the slovenly lifestyle that led her to dump him. She conspires to find him a new wife to get herself off the hook but when her replacement restores the man she fell for, the ex wants him back.” Can’t say anything in that description excites us, but who knows, maybe Garelick can make it interesting.
However, the ambitious Garelick has maneuvered his way into the director’s chair on another project. The writer spent $25,000 of his own coin and shot a six-minute test scene from his own screenplay “The Pretender” with Craig Robinson, Ken Jeong, Paula Patton and Jonathan Goldsmith (aka The Most Interesting Man In The World). Impressed with the results, Universal signed him on to direct “Hassle Man” written by Eli Jorne and Reed Agnew. No details yet on the film except its logline, “when you can’t hire a hit man, hired a hassle man.”
No word yet which project Garelick will get to first, as he’s also attached to direct “The Insane Laws” and hopes to get “The Pretender” made as well. But like everyone else coming off “The Hangover,” Garelick is using that success to open some previously closed doors. [Deadline]