Well, this pairing was rather inevitable, was it not? Take wild man Vince Vaughn and team him up with straight man Owen Wilson (oh wait, that’s been done), uhh, Kevin James, errr, well you get the picture. This time, Vaughn’s foil for his latest comedic vehicle “Insane Laws” will be none other than straight man du-jour Jason Bateman (in the Entertainment Weekly cover he graced recently re: “The Change-Up,” the actor suggested he’s just happy to get work and isn’t so concerned with being pigeonholed).
The upside is that the film will mark the directorial debut of Jeremy Garelick, the screenwriter behind Vaughn’s imperfect, but underrated 2006 dramedy, “The Break-Up.” Again, while no “Wedding Crashers” or “Old School,” the film doesn’t really purport to be either and takes a sharp, bittersweet and melancholy turn for the serious in its second half. Some thought it was too serious for a comedy and kind of a bummer (though remember, this is relative, it wasn’t a Bergman picture), but for its day, it did very well and grossed $118 million domestically and a surprisingly good $204 million worldwide (never underestimate the power of Jennifer Aniston).
The picture is being produced by Neal Mortiz‘s Original Film banner and was picked up by Universal (who also released “The Break-Up”) in March of this year.
Oh right, what’s it about? The film tells the story of two best friends and how their lives and friendships are tested when their grown children fall in love, with one man’s daughter becoming pregnant by his best friend’s son. Vaughn plays the father of the knocked-up daughter and Bateman will play the dad with some headaches of his own. Hilarity will ensue! Frankly, Vaughn’s been on auto-pilot for several years now and as much as we love Bateman, his one-trick pony gag is getting a little played too. Production may start in the fall. Our hope is that Bateman helps turn “The Change-Up” into something beyond its ridiculous body-swapping concept and maybe that will give us some small hope for this one. [Deadline]