It seems, to Empire anyway, that Tom Cruise and Ben Stiller have been attached to The Hardy Men, their comedic revamp of The Hardy Boys for aaaaaages; however, there is light at the end of the tunnel with today’s announcement that Ed Solomon has come on board to write the screenplay.
For the uninitiated, The Hardy Boys were the stars of a series of novels aimed at young adults, and then a TV show starring Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy. Both revolved around the adventures of Frank and Joe Hardy, teenage detectives.
The central conceit of The Hardy Men, to which Shawn Levy is attached as director, is that it will focus on Frank and Joe as estranged adults, forced to join together to crack a new case. Pretty slight, sure, but then Stiller has brought the funny to flimsier material, and after Cruise’s explosive cameo in Tropic Thunder, the chance to see him do more comedy should be relished.
Of course, Solomon has to write the darn thing first. But it’s in good hands – Solomon wrote both Bill & Ted movies, as well as the first, superior Men In Black. He also wrote Levity and What Planet Are You From?, but we’ll ignore those in the interests of bigging him up.
If Solomon can crack the case of the mysterious **Hardy Men **screenplay, he’ll be the first writer to do so in a torturous ten-year development process that has seen countless scribes, including Simon Kinberg, come and go. But his appointment would indicate that Stiller, who’s producing through his company, Red Hour, is anxious to get this one going asap.
Fox 2000 will be writing the cheques - mighty big ones, too, if this goes ahead.