Most Adam Sandler fans are probably more than a little relieved that he has left some of the 'earnest' comedy behind and is now headed back to a sillier state of mind with You Don't Mess with the Zohan. But don't get too comfortable; it looks like there's more family-friendly fare on the horizon. ComingSoon.net recently got the chance to speak with Adam Shankman on the set of his latest flick, Seventeen (starring the 'dreamy' Zac Efron) to talk about his upcoming directing gig with Sandler in Bedtime Stories.

Shankman told Coming Soon that the release date of December 25th is foremost in his mind and that production is going to have to work, "Unbelievably fast, because I'm going till mid-June; it's a long schedule. Then, I have to be out in theaters December 25th. And there's a ton of CG, so I'm excited." Sure, he sounds excited, but why am I suddenly worried that this film is going to be the Jumanji of 2008?

The family comedy was written by Matt Lopez, a relative newcomer who only has a few credits to his name -- one of which is the upcoming remake of Witch Mountain. Stories stars Sandler as a guy whose life is forever changed when the stories that he tells his nephew at bedtime start to become real. Keri Russell (Waitress) also stars, although there is no description of her part. The smart money is that Russell will get the thankless role of 'love interest'. Shooting is set to begin in the next three weeks and keep your fingers crossed that Shankman can keep on schedule.

I don't know why everyone keeps referring to 17 -- the Zac Efron movie in which a 40-year-old guy is suddenly a teen again -- as Big in reverse. Or, as The Hollywood Reporter writes today: "turns the concept of Big on its head." I guess nobody remembers the George Burns-becomes-Charlie Schlatter comedy 18 Again! Either that or it's simply easier to reference Big because it's a million times more well-known. Anyway, there's another movie 17 will make people think of: Back to the Future. Apparently, Efron's character (aka Matthew Perry's character as a teen) becomes the object of a crush -- from his own daughter! Playing the poor girl, who obviously doesn't realize her own Electra complex, is Michelle Trachtenberg. Also joining the cast, which includes Leslie Mann as Efron/Perry's wife and Trachtenberg's mom, is Melora Hardin ("Jan" on TV's The Office) as a high school principal.

So here's what I find strange about the new plot revelation: how is it the daughter doesn't recognize her own father as a young man? Hasn't everyone seen photos of their parents from when they were younger? At least with Back to the Future, in Lea Thompson's defense she hadn't yet birthed Michael J. Fox, and she had no way of ever having seen his face before he traveled back in time and became the object of her desires. In both scenarios, it is pretty gross to think about seriously. According to the main plot synopsis for 17, the reason Efron/Perry enrolls in high school is to be closer to his kids (hey, another movie this reminds me of: Mrs. Doubtfire). I guess he truly gets his wish in a terribly sick sort of way. Production on 17 begins this month.

Those rough mornings when the sleep is still in Zac Efron's eyes, when he has to get up early, wash up, and then spend the day at work singing and dancing -- do you think that he imagines himself growing up into Matthew Perry? Not to knock Mr. Perry. He had his own share of teen work. He was the teen paramour in an episode of Just the Ten of Us, and he took a Monkeys daughter to the prom in She's Out of Control. But he was never a teen heartthrob, wallpapering the bedroom walls of young girls all over the country. Nevertheless, The Hollywood Reporter has posted that he'll play the adult Zac Efron in the upcoming Big-like comedy, 17.

As you might remember from our previous coverage of the film, the whole thing focuses on a middle-aged guy (Perry) who wakes up one day and discovers that he's 17 again. Not 17 in mind, but 17 in body -- Zac Efron's body, to be exact. As THR describes: "In order to be close to his children, he enrolls in the same school as them." You can imagine how that'll work. I wonder if he'll then go to a dance and start busting out the dance moves of the '80s. That could be sweet. What I don't get is how he knows exactly what age he is. If that happened to me, I wouldn't know if I was 16, 17, or 18. Can you spot your 17-year-old face from the years that surround it? Maybe going back in physical time also allows one to inherently know how old they are. However it works, production begins next month, so we'll have more Efron in no time.

When we last told you about this project, all we knew was that New Line won the auction on an untitled comedy pitch from Bringing Down the House scribe Jason Filardi, that Adam Shankman was producing, Zac Efron was starring, and no one was giving any plot information away except that it was being called the "Mysterious High School Pitch." Well now, folks are finally starting to talk about it, and Efron not only gave us a title but he also shared the high-concept premise as well. In speaking with VH1, Efron (who's apparently the hot new kid on the block, having starred in a little ensemble hit called High School Musical) said that his first solo vehicle will be the film Seventeen.

He continues: "It's kind of like a reverse Big, about a guy who is older and his life never came out how he planned. [The character] wishes he could go back to high school, and sure enough, he wakes up and he is young again, he is 17 again." Shankman added that New Line is hot to make the flick, and he hopes production on it will begin this fall. Ah, reaching back to spin a concept from the late '80s -- remember when Dudley Moore swapped places with Kirk Cameron in a movie called Like Father Like Son (at the time, it was a cool film -- looking back now, it has to be one of the oddest on-screen pairings in history). A year later there was Tom Hanks in Big, as well as Fred Savage and Judge Reinhold in Vice Versa. Years later, Jennifer Garner produced a hit with the female version of Big, 13 Going on 30. Granted, no one is swapping places in Seventeen, but I'm sure the film will tap into some of those same "adult in high school-like environment' regurgitated jokes. Can't wait for the one where he doesn't know how to work an iPod. Classic!