Stiller, Cruise to Party 'Hardy'

[Brian Damage]

Ben Stiller, who once played Tom Cruise's stunt double, Tom Crooz, in an MTV Movie Awards spoof, will be teaming up with the real thing.

The two actors have signed on to star in "Hardy Men," a comedic take on what happened to the teenage detectives the Hardy Boys, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The action comedy sees siblings Frank and Joe Hardy all grown up but estranged. It's just like old times, however, when they're forced to reunite and solve a mystery. It's uncertain what other characters from the long-running book series, which began in 1927, will make it to the big screen. The books, written by ghost writers under the pen name Franklin W. Dixon, featured the two teen siblings as amateur sleuths who lived in the fictional city of Bayport with their famous father, private detective Fenton Hardy.

Under his Red Hour Films banner, Stiller will produce along with his partnter Stuart Cornfield. Stiller will reunite with his "Night at the Museum" director Shawn Levy, who will helm the 20th Century Fox buddy film.

A script has yet to be written, but the studio is shooting for a 2008 release.

The Hardy Boys characters have been adapted for the small screen a few times as stand-alone programs on "The Mickey Mouse Club," as a Saturday morning cartoon series in 1969 and as an ABC prime time series starring Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy in the late '70s.

This will be Cruise's first intentional comedy since 1996's "Jerry Maguire." Stiller, on the other hand, has done little else in recent years. His films include "Night at the Museum," "Madagascar," "Meet the Parents" and its sequel, "Dodgeball" and "Starsky & Hutch," another updated spoof co-starring Owen Wilson.

[TJL]

Hmmm. It will be interesting to see if Cruise can pull off a strictly comedic role. It sounds like a good premise though.