After hungrily watching National Treasure: Book of Secrets rake in $218 million domestic last December, Hollywood has apparently decided that what we really want is more movies about treasure hunting. On Tuesday, Erik Davis told you about Beaujolais, the new Farrelly-produced comedy about a treasure-hunting version of Ace Ventura or Austin Powers. Now comes news that Iron Jack, a spec script about a novelist's pursuit of legendary treasure in the 1930s, sparked a bidding war among studios, with Columbia picking it up for $1.25 million against $2 million (which means the writer will get an extra $750,000 if the film is actually produced). The screenwriter responsible is Johnny Rosenthal, who's had a number of things in the works over the years (including an interesting-looking comedy about a pilot who is forced to become a flight attendant to learn gender sensitivity), but with nothing coming to fruition.

The two National Treasures were a perfect demonstration of the line between treasure-hunting movies that are breezy and entertaining (the first one) and ones that are plodding, boring and ridiculous (the second). The Indiana Jones films are the genre's gold standard, of course, so The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull should hold you over nicely until Iron Jack, Beaujolais, and no doubt a third National Treasure show up at a theater near you.

It's been quite some time since the Farrelly Bros. have given us a gem like There's Something About Mary, Kingpin or Dumb and Dumber. Big-screen comedy trends seem to be changing; moving away from the random gross-out gags and more toward the random pop-culture references. But that won't stop Bobby and Peter Farrelly from navigating toward material they're familiar with -- and Variety tells us their latest comes from a script written by Mike Arnold and Chris Poole. It's called Beaujolais. Yup. I don't know what it means; Wiki says it's a wine.

Anyway, the Farrelly boys are going to produce with an eye on possibly directing. Variety describes Beaujolais as a "redneck action-adventure with a protagonist along the lines of Austin Powers or Ace Ventura." So basically it's Larry the Cable guy with a few more catchphrases. Danny McBride is currently in talks to star; he's popped up in films like The Heartbreak Kid and Hot Rod, with upcoming roles in Land of the Lost and Tropic Thunder.

Do you think Peter and Bobby Farrelly still have a comedy classic left inside them? Or has their type of humor simply taken a long walk off a short pier? (Man, would I love to see another Outside Providence from these boys ...)