The Change-Up: Ryan Reynolds & Jason Bateman cross streams, switch bodies

04.20.11 Written by Vince Mancini

change-up-Reynolds-bateman

The red-band trailer and poster just hit for The Change-Up, which comes from Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin (don’t tell anyone he directed Fred Claus) and The Hangover writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (don’t tell anyone they wrote Four Christmases and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past). It stars Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds as two buds who mysteriously switch bodies while peeing together in a magical fountain one night.  Under the circumstances, I would’ve called it Body Swap Piss Fountain, but Hot Tub Time Machine bombed, so what do I know.   Anyway, Bateman plays a boring handsome married dude, while Reynolds plays a handsome exciting womanizer.  They switch bodies, and wouldn’t you know it, discover that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.  The trailer is distinguished by its multiple poop scenes.

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RYAN REYNOLDS & JASON BATEMAN SWITCH BODIES

03.12.10 Written by Vince Mancini

REYNOLDS-BATEMAN-CAMERON
(It’s very possibly I’ve had too much coffee this morning.)

Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman are set to star in a movie of the ever-popular body-swap genre called Change Up, to be directed by Wedding Crashers‘ David Dobkin.

The project, written by “Wedding Crashers” and “The Hangover” writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, is basically “a responsible guy with a wife gets swapped with his best friend, a lazy man child.” [ThePlaylist]

It sounds great when you say it like that.  Not as great when you say “a body swap comedy from the writers of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Four Christmases, and the director of Fred Claus,” which, sadly, is also true. Fred Claus has been on cable a lot recently.  Check it out if you ever want to see a CGI elf version of Ludacris rap.  So yeah, hope for the Wedding Crashers/Hangover version of this creative team, but don’t hold your breath.  And I don’t know about you, but if I switched bodies with Ryan Reynolds, the first thing I’d probably do is try to jizz on my own washboard abs.  What?  Don’t act like I’m the only straight guy here who’s thought about it.  Oh right, I’m the weird one, whatever, you guys.

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NAT’L LAMPOON’S VACATION AGAIN

02.11.10 Written by Vince Mancini

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(The only Photoshop idea I could think of was “National Lamb Poon.”  I am… so very ashamed.)

Though Variety is reporting it like it’s new news, we’ve actually known for a while that New Line was doing a sort of sequel to National Lampoon’s Vacation, with David Dobkin (who directed Wedding Crashers but also Fred Claus) producing.  The new info is that they’ve hired two writers, Jonathan Goldstein (New Adventures of Old Christine) and John Francis Daley, whom you may remember as the weird kid from Freaks and Geeks who always had his mouth open like a jackass.Jonathan Francis Daley - Freaks and Geeks

The latest project, which will no longer carry the National Lampoon credit, is being described as more of an update than a sequel and will be closer in tone to “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” than the previous chapters. Story will focus on Rusty Griswold, now a grown man, who decides to take his own wife and kids on a road trip to Wally World before it closes forever. Chase is expected to reprise his role as Clark Griswold, now a grandfather. [Variety]

I let a hooker give me a rusty griswold once.  Once.  Anyway, it’s hard to know what to make of this kid, since while this is his fourth writing credit, none of his projects have yet been finished.  But I can only imagine his process involves staring at the screen going “HURRRRRRRR.”

JohnFrancisHurrr

RELATED ASYLUM POLL: What’s the funniest Chevy Chase movie?

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NATIONAL LAMPOON’S XTREME VACATION

10.07.09 Written by Vince Mancini

National Lampoon’s Vacation (the one where they go to Wally World) has already had three sequels, which in the mind of movie execs, makes it ripe for another.

New Line is developing a sequel of sorts to the 1983 comedy classic, with David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers, Fred Claus) attached to produce and possibly direct.  New Line is meeting with writers to write the script but the take is already developed: the story focuses on Rusty Griswold, the son of Clark Griswold, the protagonist of the initial movies portrayed by Chevy Chase. The younger Griswold is now a father himself and takes his family on a road trip vacation. The characters would acknowledge that first trip, making the movie more of a sequel than a reboot.

The original “Vacation” is a Warner Bros. property but as soon as New Line became part of the studio, exec Sam Brown began sifting through the parent company’s titles to see what was available in terms of rights. He eventually found “Vacation,” a movie he has watched more than any other in his life, and brought it to New Line president Toby Emmerich and production president Richard Brener, who jumped at the possibilities.

They’d probably jump for a frozen herring too. This is the problem with the movie business in a nutshell: the execs are too stupid or lazy or cowardly to read new scripts (or to ask the opinion of people they pay to read scripts for them), and instead spend their time trying find out which movies they already made that they can make again.  What is this, karaoke?  Grow some balls, you pussies.

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I BLAME YOU, TODD PHILLIPS

08.10.09 Written by Vince Mancini

(It’s okay, Birthday Dog isn’t traumatized, he’s too busy partyin’.)

Like everyone else, I enjoyed The Hangover a lot, but I’m usually careful to point out that it was good mainly because of Zach Galifianakis, a likable cast, and a director who knows comedy and has a nice visual style (Todd Phillips), and not because of the script or the concept (which one studio head wanted to call What Happens in Vegas).  Sadly, that won’t stop a couple of the original screenwriters from getting work because of The Hangover‘s success (even though it’s well-known that Todd Phillips and Jeremy Garelick did extensive rewrites).

Universal has picked up the script “Change Up” from “Hangover” writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. David Dobkin is attached to direct and produce.

Nothing wrong with that, right?  Hold on…

The studio is keeping the logline under wraps, though it is known to be a body-switching comedy. In addition to “Hangover,” which has become the top-grossing R-rated comedy with $258.6 million, Lucas and Moore also wrote the recent New Line comedies “The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” and “Four Christmases.”  Dobkin last directed 2007′s “Fred Claus.” [THR]

So that’s Ghosts of Girlfriends Past plus Four Christmases plus Fred Claus plus body swap comedy?  …We’re gonna need a bigger WOOOOF.  I can’t wait for the next Lucas/Moore/Dobkin collaboration, Vince Vaughn is Fired Up about Breakfast Cereal.

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