(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.

Due Date already reteams director Todd Phillips (Old School, The Hangover) with Zach Galifianakis (who recently revealed that his real name is Chad Farthouse), which was more than enough to chub my anticipation boner, but now that Robert Downey Jr. has been announced as his co-star, they’re practically stroking it through my sweatpants.

Downey will play an expectant father on a road trip with a mismatched partner, racing to get to the birth of his first child.  Galifianakis, who delivered a breakout performance this summer in the Phillips-directed comedy “The Hangover,” will play Downey’s road trip mate in a comedy that Phillips calls “a buddy comedy without the buddies.” [Variety]

No one in The Hangover did a bad job, and Todd Phillips is one of the best comedy directors around, but Zach Galifianakis carried the entire movie.  Much like Downey did in Iron Man (seriously, imagine that movie without him: the richest, coolest guy in the world sort of falls for Gwyneth Paltrow?  WOOF.).  So will them together be the best thing ever, or will their respective awesomeness clash somehow?  It sounds like a good idea to me, but then I think you can never have too much of a good thing, which is why I always order my bacon ice cream with a side of explosions and porn.

Having previously been attached to “Man-Witch“, The Hangover/Old School director Todd Phillips has signed on to produce the even-punnier-sounding “Staycation” for WB.

Phillips hatched the concept and brought it to writers Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay [The Tuxedo]. The title gives a clue to the story, but Phillips and the studio would not divulge a logline, though sources said that, as with Phillips’ comedies like “The Hangover,” this will be a male-driven laffer. [Variety]

Oh, Variety.  The only publication that prides itself on misspelling-originated slang.  Let’s see, title as a clue to the story… I went on a gaycation once, but my priest helped me cure it with a praycation.  Sarah Jessica Parker prefers haycations, ehcations only happen in Canada, and a Michael Baycation is when you wrestle a wolf on top of a Ferrari.  He finds it very relaxing.  However, as this picture demonstrates, some Baycations can only be represented visually.

[picture source = here]

Ever since The Hangover became the second highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever, speculation on what Todd Phillips and Zach Galifiniakis’ next project would be has run wild like an aborigine with a spear in the jungle.  Now Variety reports that the pair will do Due Date, to be followed by The Hangover 2 a year later.

Galifianakis will play one of the two leads in “Due Date,” an Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland [King of the Hill - eek] script that was revised by Adam Sztykiel [Made of Honor. Oof]. In the comedy about fatherhood, an expectant dad and his unlikely travel companion (Galifianakis) race cross-country in hopes of making it home for the birth of his first child.

Phillips is on track to earn $35 million or more on “The Hangover” after he gave back his salary and gross position to become an equity investment partner in the pic. Move allowed him to make the film with Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms, who were not proven at the box office. Phillips never wagered as smartly as he did on “The Hangover.” Because he insisted on his cast, WB Pictures Group prexy Jeff Robinov gave him a budget ceiling of $34 million, and the only way Phillips could make that number was to work for scale and use salary and gross to buy his way into being an equity investor. [Variety]

F-ck yeah, Todd Phillips.  Uh, he’s here for the gangbang?  But seriously, it’s pretty awesome when someone in Hollywood lays his nuts on the table and ends up proving everyone wrong.  Usually the only time you see nuts laid on the table is when squirrels gamble.

For everyone who wants to relive the magic of The Hangover, here’s Ed Helms singing “Stu’s Song”, or “What Would Tigers Dream Of.”  It’s not as funny as his Here Comes Treble songs on The Office but I figured I’d post it while everyone’s searching for it.  Mmm, topical.   Elsewhere, Nikki Finke claims to have the real story behind the film.

It all started with Chris Bender who heard the story of how his Hollywood friend went mysteriously missing from his bachelor party in Las Vegas. The pal was film producer Tripp Vinson [Most Hollywood name outside of Vin Diesel].

“I remember being a drunken fool, as you’re supposed to do at your bachelor party, and having a really good time with all my friends,” Vinson told me. “But then I remember being a mess. And when people are f-cked up, crazy sh-t happens.” That’s when Tripp went missing from his bash. Even now, all Vinson knows is, “I got separated from my friends, and I blacked out. And when I was revived, I was in a strip club being threatened with a very, very large bill I was supposed to pay. It was not a fun experience at the time, but it made for a funny story.”

[about 5 paragraphs of studio insider stuff on who bought what pitch from whom - including how the head of New Line would only buy it if it was called "What Happens in Vegas." Idiot.]

As for Tripp Vinson, he wasn’t involved with the movie at all. “I wasn’t even aware of it. Once the spec went out, I became aware of it. I know they embellished the story.” Nor did Warner Bros buy his life rights: he laughed when I told him a good lawyer could secure a trust fund for his kid. As for Chris Bender, this is the 3rd time he’s taken a real-life Hollywood producer’s life story and put it on the big screen. You may already know this, but American Pie is based on Bender’s high school experiences. Jason Biggs plays Bender, who got a producer credit on the pic. And Just Friends also was based on Bender’s life and he got a producer credit. [DeadlineHollywoodDaily - video via ThePlaylist]

So let’s see… so far he’s written about: high school guys trying to get laid, a guy trying to get laid who has to just be friends instead, and blacking out at a bachelor party.  Boy, truth is stranger than fiction.