EXCLUSIVE: Peter Farrelly is looking to get back in to the genre that helped launch his career. Sources tell Deadline that the Oscar winner is partnering with Skydance on the new action comedy Balls Up that he will direct from a script by Deadpool scribes Paul Wernick & Rhett Reese.
Based on an original pitch from Wernick & Reese, the project was developed with Skydance. Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger are producing along with Wernick & Reese and Andrew Muscato. Aimee Rivera will oversee the project for Skydance.
Plot details are unknown but sources say the tone will fit right in with those classic comedies like Dumb & Dumber and Kingpin that Farrelly directed with his brother Bobby that made the Farrellys two of the biggest names in comedy during the 1990s and 2000s. Peter Farrelly is currently in production on the Amazon pic Ricky Stanicky starring Zac Efron, but wanted the next project ready to go once he is done shooting, and moved fast to get this set up at Skydance with actors already meeting for the starring roles.
The film reunites Skydance with Farrelly following The Greatest Beer Run Ever which he directed; it premiered last year on Apple TV+.
As for Wernick & Rheese, the duo are currently penning the third Deadpool pic for Marvel with plans for that to go into production later this year.
Coming off the hugely successful Top Gun: Maverick, Skydance’s upcoming live-action film slate includes the seventh and eighth installments of the Mission: Impossible series and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Also in the works is Ghosted, The Family Plan and The Gorge for Apple TV+, and Heart of Stone, The Old Guard 2 and a reimagining of the Spy Kids franchise for Netflix.
Farrelly is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content, and Lichter Grossman. Wernick & Reese are repped by WME.
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