After spending the better part of four years on (ever diminishing returns) of “The Hangover” series, and detouring to make a movie cut from the same cloth in “Due Date,” Todd Phillips is changing gears. You may not remember, but way back in 2011, he optioned the rights to Guy Lawson‘s Rolling Stone article, “Arms And The Dudes.” And now, it’s going to be his next film.
THR reports that Phillips’ ‘Hangover’ bud Bradley Cooper has joined him, they’ve formed a production company, signed a deal with Warner Bros., and “Arms & The Dudes” will be the director’s next film. The true story (read the full article right here) follows 25 year-old David Packouz and 21 year-old Efraim Diveroli, who scored a $300 million Pentagon contract to arm allies in Afghanistan, taking them on a journey through the absurd and political world of international arms trafficking that would end up with the duo being busted for fraud.
No word yet on any casting—Cooper is just producing—but Jonah Hill has been doing table reads, and with an eye to shoot later this year, decisions may be coming soon. We dig the slight shift in direction for Phillips (even if it’s yet another story of young people given to wild and crazy things) but hopefully the underlying seriousness of the subject matter opens up some new textures to his filmmaking.