Cruise and Stiller a 'Hardy' duo for Fox

By Stone Martindale Feb 13, 2007, 15:53 GMT

Actor Ben Stiller REUTERS/Eric Thayer

Twentieth Century Fox has cast Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise to play sleuths in "The Hardy Men," a Shawn Levy-directed action comedy based on the classic mystery series "The Hardy Boys," reports Variety.

Enthused by the positive reaction to their chemistry, Stiller and Cruise allegedly have been talking about other projects including "Tropic Thunder," the film Stiller will direct next for DreamWorks.

Variety points out the irony in that Paramount, the studio that booted Cruise after Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone publicly took issue with him, would be distributing.

Cruise and Stiller have been friends for years according to Variety.

Their friendship bagan on "The Ben Stiller Show" and was furthered in the clever short "Mission: Improbable," in which Stiller portrayed a stuntman for Cruise on "Mission: Impossible 2." Cruise played himself in the short.

While "Tropic Thunder" is in the early development stage, Cruise and Stiller are entrenched in active development of  "The Hardy Men," which Fox hopes to put into production by 2008.

Variety reports it will be another collaboration between Levy and Stiller, who were successful with the recent Fox blockbuster "Night at the Museum."

The film will feature Cruise and Stiller as grown up detectives reliving their mystery solving glory days.

Fox is seeking a writer to rewrite the existing script written by Michael Sargent.

Stiller is producing "The Hardy Men" with Red Hour production company partner Stuart Cornfeld, along with Robert Kosberg. Kosberg owned the original "Hardy Boys" rights and brought the project to Red Hour eight years ago, reports Production Weekly and Variety.

Stiller is to appear in "The Seven Day Itch," a Farrelly brothers comedy for DreamWorks and Paramount.

Cruise is starring with Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Michael Pena and Derek Luke in "Lions for Lambs," the Matthew Michael Carnahan-directed ensemble drama for United Artists shooting in Los Angeles, reports Production Weekly and Variety.