Screenwriters Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien earned quite a bit of acclaim last year thanks to the screenplay they wrote for the hit comedy Neighbors. The good will generated from that project has been paying off ever since, and that streak continues today. Yet another one of the duo's scripts, titled The House, is now in development at New Line Cinema, and, what's more, it has attached one of comedy's biggest stars to play one of the leads: Will Ferrell.
The Hollywood Reporter has received word from their sources that Ferrell is now attached to both star in and produce The House, a comedy that will also serve as Andrew J. Cohen's directorial debut. The film will center around a mother and father who wind up blowing the college fund they have been saving for their daughter. In order to try and make the money back, they team up with their neighbors to organize an illegal casino in their basement. As you might have already guessed, Ferrell will be playing the father in the movie, and one can imagine that the production will be looking to pair him up with one of the industry's best comedic leading ladies (though the trade report doesn't mention any potential candidates for the role).
Interestingly, this isn't the first time that Will Ferrell has been attached to make a film about a man's struggle to get his kid into a good college. Back in 2012 he became attached to star in a movie called Crazy U, which would have seen him play a dad who becomes entirely obsessive about getting his kid into the best university possible, and even goes as far as to try and hunt down and employ a private consultant to help him get it done. Considering that The House will have him perhaps playing a very similar character to the one in that movie, I wonder if Ferrell's interest in this new project is partially fueled by the fact that Crazy U is stuck in development hell and perhaps not moving for a while.
New Line has not yet revealed any kind of release plans for The House, but at the very latest it will be next year that we find out how legit Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien are. As we've previously reported, the screenwriting duo's sophomore effort is the comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, which will co-star Neighbors' Zac Efron and Workoholics' Adam DeVine. That movie is still in pre-production, but has been slated for release on July 8, 2016.
Will Ferrell has a rather busy 2015. He will next be featured alongside Kevin Hart in the prison comedy Get Hard - which will be debuting at SXSW before a March release - and then later this year he will be starring in the James Franco-adaptation of the Steve Erickson novel Zeroville. The former Saturday Night Live star is currently filming the comedy Daddy's Home, which will reteam him with The Other Guys' Mark Wahlberg, and should be out some time later this year.
