It's been a while since we discussed the Tom Cruise/ Ben Stiller team-up for  The Hardy Men, a big screen comedy about the infamous fictional teenage detectives The Hardy Boys.

However, director Shawn Levy is stating that the film is very much in active development and it looks like it is moving closer (albeit slowly) to the big screen.

The last news that we heard about the film, which is  based on the series of Hard Boys novels penned by various  authors under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon was that Men In Black scribe Ed Soloman was writing the script - but that was almost a year ago!

Levy has spoke to Starpulse about the film, and the issues which have slowed down its journey to cinema screens.

When Levy spoke to Starpulse about the film's genesis he said:

“Yes, I saw how well Ben and Tom got along and that’s what gave me the idea of wait a second, I’ve got to do a movie with them together. Wait a second, let’s do The Hardy Men with them together. That brainchild came about because I saw their chemistry as friends.”

The director then went on to discuss the challenges of making a film with two big movie stars:

“Developing a movie for a movie star is hard. Developing a movie for two movie stars is a very, very challenging enterprise. The bull’s eye is small and the tone has to be exactly right. So we are still working on it.”

However, he also added that the script for the film is far from complete and that they still don't have a satisfactory central mystery:

“We have tried several. No, we have not locked in on one.”

stillerandcruise

I loved the Hardy Boys novels as a kid, and always thought that they'd be ripe for a big screen adaptation (although, in my mind's eye, I always saw Matt Damon and Ben Affleck starring). Having said that, I feel that Stiller and Cruise are inspired casting choices - as anyone who has seen Tropic Thunder and the Mission: Impossible skit Mission: Improbable can attest to.

More on The Hardy Men when we get it!

Source: Starpulse