‘Tropic Thunder’ Writer to Direct Ferrell/Helms Comedy
Will Ferrell, Ed Helms and Etan Cohen
It looks like the Will Ferrell/Ed Helms comedy Daddy’s Home is finally moving towards production. Etan Cohen (the writer of Tropic Thunder and Idiocracy, not to be confused with Ethan Cohen of the Cohen Bros) will make his directorial debut on the film. Ferrell will play a divorcee man-child, whose ex-wife remarries a safer mild-mannered man played by Helms.
Adam McKay and Chris Henchy have polished the script written by Henchy’s Entourage writing staff co-worker Brian Burns, and Paramount will release the film under the Ferrell/McKay Gary Sanchez Productions banner. The filming schedule hasn’t been officially announced, but it can be assumed to film this Spring now during Helms summer hiatus from The Office (production on The Hangover 2 has been moved to this Fall.)
Back in October, it looked like Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer was going to lense Daddy’s Home, when the project was first announced.
This step towards directing is a big plus for Etan Cohen, whose had a lot of high profile films stuck in development hell, including:
- Men in Black III
- Sherlock Holmes: The Judd Apatow-produced comedic vision that would have starred Sacha Baron Cohen as Holmes and Will Ferrell as Watson.
- Project A: A Ben Stiller-produced action comedy starring Rob Corddry as a government-trained pest.
Did anyone else notice that Helms was listed in the opening credits on The Office for the first time this week? Interesting…
It’s a little weird to watch. Everything plays much faster now. At least they gradually pushed him up (the dvd cover, the cast promo photo, webisode appearances, big involvement in the B-storylines.) That combover-bangs haircut of his is odd to see though.