Poor Todd Phillips can’t catch a break. While his name will always be cemented in the annals of cinematic history for the comedic genius that was “Old School,” and penning “Borat,” his luck has vacillated ever since writing and directing Ferrell, Vaughn and Wilson in that comedy classic. (and much of that has been by his own design).
Jack Black has just dropped out of his upcoming supernatural comedy project, “Man Witch” which chronicles a man who discovers he’s a witch and then heads off to teach at a female witch school (Phillips is set to produce and to likely direct as well).
The issues allegedly came from Black’s camp, who were apparently unhappy over Phillips’ purported commitment to direct the picture ahead of “Hangover,” another project the filmmaker was circling (wait, Black wants Phillips to shoot something else first? confoosed).
Aside from the success of ‘Borat,’ which ultimately wasn’t entirely his and had it’s own problems – Phillips was meant to direct: he quit the production after shooting the infamous rodeo/”Star Spangled Banner” scene, due to creative differences with Sacha Baron Cohen – the director hasn’t had much luck in recent years.
“Starsky & Hutch” was financially successful (though not massively so in the U.S.), but it was a turd (we actually walked out) and the disastrous “School For Scoundrels” basically limped into theaters/straight to DVD (according to Box-Office mojo the film couldn’t make its budget back even considering foreign receipts).
Well, there’s always “Old School Dos,” right?
Meanwhile, you’ve heard all those “School Of Rock 2″ rumors, right? Well, Black told MTV today he’d only do the film with the participation of the original director Richard Linklater. I look forward to reading [the script]. I hope it happens because I had such a great experience the first time, it would be fun to do it again. I love to rock. I love making movies.”
