Will Ferrell & Jack Black making a movie about grown men who play tag

Tag is a children’s game in which you run around trying to touch each other. Add booze and it’s called “adulthood.” But a couple of dorks from eastern Washington still prefer the retro version, and now Will Ferrell and Jack Black have signed on to do a movie about them, called “Tag Brothers.” So we’re giving these guys movies instead of ass kickings now? What a world.

Will Ferrell and Jack Black are attached to star in “Tag Brothers,” a pitch based on a recent Wall Street Journal article that was just snapped up in a major bidding war by New Line Cinema.
Ferrell and Black’s future involvement is contingent on the screenplay, which will be written by Mark Steilen, who previously directed “Wieners” and “The Settlement.”
Steilen previously wrote the family comedy “Time Share” for Sony and Will Smith’s company Overbrook Entertainment, as well as the rock ‘n roll movie “Born to Rock,” which is in active development at Paramount. [TheWrap]

From the Wall Street Journal article:

It started in high school when they spent their morning break darting around the campus of Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, Wash. Then they moved on—to college, careers, families and new cities. But because of a reunion, a contract and someone’s unusual idea to stay in touch, tag keeps pulling them closer. Much closer.

The game they play is fundamentally the same as the schoolyard version: One player is “It” until he tags someone else. But men in their 40s can’t easily chase each other around the playground, at least not without making people nervous, so this tag has a twist. There are no geographic restrictions and the game is live for the entire month of February. The last guy tagged stays “It” for the year.

One February day in the mid-1990s, Mr. Tombari and his wife, then living in California, got a knock on the door from a friend. “Hey, Joe, you’ve got to check this out. You wouldn’t believe what I just bought,” he said, as he led the two out to his car.

What they didn’t know was Sean Raftis, who was “It,” had flown in from Seattle and was folded in the trunk of the Honda Accord. When the trunk was opened he leapt out and tagged Mr. Tombari, whose wife was so startled she fell backward off the curb and tore a ligament in her knee.

It’s… cute? I guess? I mean, it’s better than kids named Sierra and Preston playing quidditch at their exclusive northeastern liberal arts schools. My problem with it is that it’s never clearly communicated what it means to be “it.” Does he have to chug a Smirnoff Ice? Eat a jizz-soaked cookie? What? My competitions need clear consequences, dammit!

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