After doing the indie thing with “Clay Pigeons,” getting a taste of Hollywood with “Shanghai Knights,” and breaking out with “Wedding Crashers,” David Dobkin is getting ready to change gears a bit. While “Fred Claus” was an embarrassment, his forthcoming Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman comedy “The Change-Up” looks to find the director back in stride and it seems Warner Bros. is ready to allow him to take a chance on something big.
Deadline reports that the studio has shelled out $2 million, beating out Universal and Fox among others, for Dobkin’s spec script “Arthur & Lancelot.” The film, budgeted at a whopping $90 million, will take the classic figures of history and legend and rework them into a “contemporary re-imagining,” words that always strike fear in our hearts. Though it’s not clear, we presume it’s not a comedy and will be more in line with the plethora of fairy tale/mythology style films that are in development across Hollywood.
Either way, with that kind of money flying around, WB clearly believes this is a winning horse worth backing. It’s still pretty early and no word yet on when this roll, but you can bet execs will be looking closely at the opening numbers for “The Change-Up” before making any big moves on the project. The body-switching comedy opens on August 5th.
