Warner Bros. and The Hangover director Todd Phillips are stepping up their game for their joint project, Arms & The Dudes, with Jesse Eisenberg and Shia LaBeouf both being circled for the two leads. Should they sign on the dotted line, the duo will play a couple of stoners… who start dealing guns.
How on Earth did this bonkers-sounding film come to fruition? I hear you ask. After Phillips’ and Bradley Cooper’s new production outfit struck a deal with WB, they set about nailing down their first movie together. Lo and behold, Phillips had been squirreling away at Arms & The Dudes, based on a Rolling Stone article by Guy Lawson.
Based on a true story, twenty-somethings David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli land themselves a $300 million contract with the Pentagon to supply arms to their allies in Afghanistan. In way over their heads, the pair’s adventures found them embroiled in a host of bizarre political scrapes until they were eventually busted for fraud.
To be honest, I’m a bit baffled…. hasn’t LaBeouf quit acting? Or was that part of an uber-meta one-man show that tanked? Eisenberg will make an awesome nervy youngster, because, he’s made a career out of perfecting that niche while remaining inherently likeable. As for LaBeouf? The behind the scenes ranting and “crazy method” tactics will likely find him banged up for actually dealing arms.
The premise is an exciting one, especially considering Phillips has made gross-out dude comedy his mainstay. Will this signal a new venture into more dramatic waters? Ones that don’t involve drunken men in foreign countries, perhaps? We can hope!
Arms & The Dudes will be produced by Mark Gordon and Bryan Zuriff from a script by Jason Smilovic.
