It looks like that collaboration between Jack Black and Todd Phillips won't be happening after all. Black pulled out of Phillips' Man-Witch, reportedly due to doubts about the director's commitment to make the supernatural comedy his next project. The film -- about a man who discovers he's a witch and enrolls in an all-female witch school -- is still in active development, with Phillips and his team looking for an actor to replace Black.

The other movie Phillips is mulling is the much more amusing-sounding Hangover, about a trio of guys who wake up after a rowdy Vegas bachelor party to discover that they've misplaced the groom. That could be legitimately funny with the right cast and a decent script -- though the fact that the writers are the guys behind the Martin Lawrence basketball "comedy" Rebound isn't too promising. Anyway, maybe losing Black will push Phillips toward doing Hangover first.

Meanwhile, all has mostly been quiet on the possibility of a sequel to Old School, the frat-house romp that rocketed Todd Phillips to the A-list. Though not the biggest Old School fan, I feel like that would be a more productive use of his time than what sounds like a half-baked Harry Potter parody -- especially after the relative anonymity of his last effort, School for Scoundrels.

So we all know that Tom Cruise jokes are getting a little old, but you can't deny it's been fascinating to watch one of the most powerful guys in movies have a "freak out" and be forced to watch all his star-worship fade away. According to Fox News' Roger Friedman, it's not looking good for Bryan Singer's historical drama, Valkyrie. According to Friedman, "Valkyrie is a set up for not only failure, but ridicule." Friedman goes on to take shots at Cruise's attempts at a German accent and even Singer and Christopher McQuarrie's dialog gets a few (dis) honorable mentions. Although, to be fair, I wouldn't count on a gossip reporter from Fox to be the final word on film criticism.

Friedman joins the chorus of critics who think that Valkyrie will not only fail to improve Cruise's current Hollywood standing, but that it will further add another nail to his box office coffin. Cruise still has a few more chances to pull himself out of this mess: First up will be a cameo in Tropic Thunder, then it's on to a full-on attempt at comedy with director Todd Phillips (Old School) in Men, and finally Cruise is expected to star alongside Ben Stiller in the buddy comedy, The Hardy Men (which I personally think has some potential). Who knows? Maybe he will finally be making people laugh at him on purpose. Valkyrie arrives in theaters on October 3rd.

[via Film Drunk]

The interesting thing about the big strike that's looming is that it's causing all these filmmakers to come out of the woodwork and acquire pre-strike gigs with projects nobody's ever heard before. Here's one: Todd Phillips is set to direct and produce Hangover, which is a spec script Warner Bros. just bought from Rebound scribes Jon Lucas and Scott Moore for $2 million. Sounding like a cross between Bachelor Party, Dude, Where's My Car? and Phillips' own Old School (mostly because I picture that cast in this), the comedy will be about three guys who apparently wake up the morning after a Vegas bachelor party and realize they've lost the groom. So, they have to retrace their steps from the night before and find him before the wedding. According to Variety, Phillips said the premise spoke to him.

Another frat boy farce from Phillips? I'm sold, even if I haven't liked much that he's done since Old School, which was probably my favorite comedy of the early 2000s -- it was at least the one I watched the most times, anyway. As I mentioned, I can totally see the cast of Old School being in Hangover, especially Will Ferrell, since I'm imagining it being Frank the Tank's fault the groom has been "misplaced." Then again, the movie could also work with a young, college-age cast, with say Seann William Scott, who starred in both Phillips' Road Trip (and appears in Old School) and Dude, Where's My Car? I know, I'm just kinda rattling off potential names here, but I'm doing so because in a pre-strike world, this is also what Hollywood is doing -- acting fast and thinking quickly in order to lock things into place a.s.a.p.

Hard to believe that raucous rascal Jack Black and slob-com director Todd Phillips never hooked up before, but it looks like they're about to remedy that oversight. The WB project is called Man-Witch, and I guarantee it'll have at least one joke about manwiches. Here's how Variety describes the premise: "Black will play a schoolteacher who suddenly discovers he has witchlike abilities. Taken in by a coven, he is persuaded to attend a school for witches, only to discover that his classmates are all girls."

See, now that's inspired. They could have just stopped with "man-witch," but they had to go the extra mile and include the fish-out-of-water AND gender-alienation gags in there too! Raise your hand if you think Mr. Black will have to cross-dress and try to pass as a woman at least once. Ugh. Newcomer screenwriter Jay Reiss will be penning the thing, and he'll be working from a pitch by Josh Stolberg (Kids in America) and first-timer Bob Florsheim.

Hmm, the director of Starsky & Hutch and School for Scoundrels, a bunch of inexperienced writers, and the sometimes-great, sometimes-painful Jack Black -- who really hasn't delivered a whole lot since School of Rock. Combine all that with a premise that sounds like it fell out of a Fox Family Channel Original, and I think I'll be passing on this one. Unless the trailer's really funny.

Whether the director can successfully get Old School 2 up and running, like Erik Davis posted about yesterday, Todd Phillips already has something else in the works. (This might be a good idea since it appears as if the director might be having some problems with the sequel's script.) Me, I've had problems with Phillips ever since he co-wrote Road Trip, which was a blatant rip-off of Overnight Delivery. Have you ever noticed how flipping similar the two are? Nevertheless, he is already set to produce an upcoming comedy called The Chadster, and is deciding whether or not he wants to direct it as well.

The movie comes from an original pitch by Michael Samonek, which he will write. It's a good thing that computers have taken over for pens, because this guy would be writing himself into carpal tunnel -- he's also writing The Whole Pemberton Thing, Car Wars and Party Buddies. I can't help but think that for this latest inspiration, the screenwriter was watching Charlie's Angels, and decided that Tom Green's "The Chad" was something feature film-worthy. And, I could be right. The movie is about a best man who feels threatened when an eccentric childhood friend pops up at the wedding he is in and causes trouble. Could this strange long-ago friend refer to himself in the third person and do Green-esque stunts? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Though he's a busy man as of late, director Todd Phillips still hasn't committed to his next helming gig. Supposedly, he's been working on a script for Old School Dos, a sequel to the hit 2003 comedy, but recent rumors suggest his all-star cast might not be interested in reprising their roles. His last two pics, School for Scoundrels and Starsky & Hutch, weren't all that great, even though the latter wound up taking in a hefty $88 million at the box office. However, that flick was based on a familiar property and had Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson to help beef up interest. Scoundrels, well, tanked. Badly. Real badly.

Yet, Phillips still intends to hang onto his roots and, according to Variety, wants to continue to make silly buddy flicks until something finally clicks. Unfortunately, that something clicked awhile ago and now it seems as if he's firing empty rounds toward an audience who's somewhat tired of random Ben Stiller cameos. Phillips has just attached himself as producer to The Fix Up, a comedy he might also direct. Could The Fix Up, um, fix up his career and get it back on track? Only time will tell. Story follows some average dude who is falsely accused of a crime, and when a government agent vows to correct the situation, the two embark on some sort of road adventure.

Script was originally written by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas (the duo behind the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother) and bought by Warner Bros. two years ago. Now, the studio has brought on Michael Colton and John Aboud to fix The Fix Up and transform it into the greatest comedy ever created. Right on!

Yes, its true. One of my favorite movies of the last few years, Old School, finally seems to be moving forward with a sequel. The movie (which Erik wrote about before) has long been rumored, due in large part to the success of the original, and Dreamworks has always seemed committed to the idea, but for one reason or another, a sequel never seemed to get off the ground. The delays now seem to be over though, at least according to IGN, as Director Todd Phillips and co-writer Sean Armstrong, who both did the original, have started work on the script for the sequel called Old School Dos.

Maybe its because I was in a fraternity in college and I kinda miss those "good old days" so perfectly captured by the first film. Or, maybe its because the first film had such great comic performances by Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will "Frank the Tank" Ferrell. Of course, it could also be that when I saw Old School for the first time (in a great theater in Portland where you can have a beer and watch movies at the same time) I laughed so hard I nearly choked on my frosty beverage.

It could be all of those reasons and any one of a dozen others, but no matter what it is, I am psyched about a sequel and look forward to seeing it when it comes out. But even though Phillips and Armstrong have started on a script, there's still no guarantee the film will get made -- or if it does, arrive at your local theater any time soon. There are many details still to be worked out, not the least of which are the schedules of Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell and a finished script approved by the actors.

Still, if Phillips and Armstrong do manage to get a script together that entices the actors to return, and Dreamworks can manage the schedules and put the rest of the pieces together, we might just see this film after all. And after seeing the film, maybe we'll swing by Bed Bath and Beyond, but I'm not sure if we'll have enough time.

Are you as excited as I am for Old School 2?

Todd Phillips has made a string of comedies -- Frat House, Road Trip and Old School -- all springing from bad male behavior, capturing the seeming link between heightened testosterone and reduced I.Q. Phillips' biggest success, Old School, shone probably not thanks to any directorial touch he brought to the material, but rather because he had a triumvirate of charismatic, funny leads in Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughan and Will Ferrell. In School for Scoundrels, starring Jon Heder as Roger, a nebbishy New Yorker who takes bad cad Billy Bob Thornton's dating confidence course, Phillips doesn't have three funny, charismatic leads; he only has one.

The fact that Jon Heder has somehow become a leading man is a mystery that will be puzzled over by future generations. Much like Owen Wilson in Bottle Rocket, Napoleon Dynamite exploded Heder onto the scene with a bravura performance in an independent film, a film full of the energy you get from a young actor giving a part everything he has. Unlike Wilson, though, Heder is a zero-charisma screen presence, a wispy, insubstantial figure who cannot hold his own against any other actor -- or even hold our attention. Some might make the case that hey, Heder's character is supposed to be a bit of a gimp in this film -- uncharismatic, not forceful -- but that's a load of hooey: Heder's Johnny one-note skill set is getting tired terribly, terribly fast.

I used to have such high hopes for Todd Phillips. Not only was Old School a film so funny that I literally watched it repeatedly for days, its success was not caused solely on the talents of its cast -- which is the case with so many comedies these days. Phillips actually showed promise as a director, too. Then came the wretched Starsky & Hutch, which couldn't even be helped by its cast, and now coming this week is School for Scoundrels, which really can't make up for its casting of the bland monotony of Jon Heder. So, I for one am excited about his returning to Old School for a sequel, if it moves forward.

If it doesn't, Phillips' production company has a project about Russian brides at Warners (previously at Miramax) based on David Benioff's article "Goodbye to Romance", originally published in the magazine Arena. Phillips isn't set to direct the movie, which has a treatment written by E. Max Frye, but with Old School Dos, a remake called Men, a film listed on his IMDb paged called The Dogs of Babel and the postcards-from-god movie The Disassociate, it is obvious that his plate is already overfilled. If he does go with this film, though, I suggest he casts Vince Vaughn and Billy Bob Thornton (who probably doesn't really need another character in the style of Bad Santa/Bad News Bears/School for Scoundrels) as the men who go to Russia in search of women to wed.