Todd Phillips’ Green Hat Films banner has been set up at Warner Bros. ever since “Starsky & Hutch” in 2004. While not every film he’s made since has been a huge hit (“School for Scoundrels” for one, but that was a Dimension/Weinstein Company picture), ever since “The Hangover” arrived, it’s helped Green Hat gross $1.2 billion worldwide.
Suffice to say Warner Bros. loves Phillips and the feeling is mutual. According to a just-delivered press release, the company just re-upped their deal with Green Hat that keeps him on the Warners lot until the end of 2013. And while that deal’s just been restruck, Phillips and Green Hat are developing four new films, some of which could end up to be directorial efforts for the director.
“Todd’s been a cherished member of the Warner family for a long time, and the comedic genius he’s brought to the big screen has made for an extraordinarily successful partnership,” said WB President Jeff Robinov in a statement. “We’re excited to extend our relationship and eagerly anticipate more great movies from Todd and Green Hat."
As part of current development slate, Green Hat unveiled “Mule,” based on the acclaimed novel by Tony D’Souza about a young couple who turn to drug trafficking to make it through the recession.
Based on a Rolling Stone article by Guy Lawson, another new project is “Arms And The Dudes,” which follows two stoners from Miami Beach who become big-time arms dealers, until the Pentagon turned on them.
The third project, “The Island” comes with a story by Travis Fickett and Terry Matalas, and a screenplay by Adam Sztykiel, who penned Phillips' “Due Date."
Based on the YouTube and FunnyOrDie sensation “What’s It Gonna Be” by Mike O’Connell and Ken Jeong, the last project is called “Million Dollar Strong” and Mike O’Connell and Peter Kline (“The Living Wake”) are writing the screenplay.
Green Hat’s Scott Budnick and Phillips are producing and or executive-producing most of the projects. Which one will he ultimately pick? Who knows. This isn’t the first time it’s been announced that Todd Phillips was looking at three or four different projects with only one of them (“The Hangover”) ever coming into fruition (remember all these projects?), but clearly WB are going to be happy either way.