Fred Savage has come a long way since The Wonder Years.  The actor first started directing in TV in the early 2000s and has been steadily helming episodes of shows like Modern Family, Happy Endings, and 2 Broke Girls for years.  He directed the straight-to-DVD spinoff film Daddy Day Camp in 2007, but now he’s been tapped to helm a high profile feature film with an Oscar winner in the leading role.  Savage is reportedly in talks to direct the comedy Ladies Night, with Charlize Theron attached to star.

The film is described as “Bridesmaids-esque” and centers on a woman who, “when confronted with her longtime boyfriend’s inability to commit, decides to have one last night on the town with her girlfriends before uprooting her life and moving to New York.”  Hit the jump for more.

There are two incredibly infuriating things about Adam Sandler: First, he makes movies that aren’t very good but they make boatloads of cash.  Second, he could make better movies, but he chooses not to since they might not make boatloads of cash.  It’s for these reasons that critics largely brush off Sandler’s movies even though they’re screened for press (which is more than I can say for the films of Paul W.S. Anderson).  There are brief times when Sandler will wander off the beaten track to do something “respectable” like Funny People or Punch-Drunk Love, but everything he does feels like a cynical calculation where he’ll inevitably come back to the safe confines of a lowest-common-denominator comedy.  That’s My Boy, his first R-rated feature since Punch-Drunk, shows brief glimmers of the Sandler we knew at the beginning of his film career, but those moments are drowned out by the lazy comedy for which he’s become infamous.

Adam Sandler is in talks to play Andy Samberg’s father in I Hate You Dad though less than twelve years separate their ages in real life. According to THR, “The story centers on a father who moves in on the eve of his son’s wedding and promptly begins feuding with the bride-to-be.”  Columbia Pictures first picked up the project in August 2008 from a script by David Caspe that has since been rewritten by David Wain and Ken Marino (Role Models). 

I Hate You Dad is one of several possible starring vehicles for Sandler including Narco, The $40,000 Man, and Valet Guys with Kevin James.  Sandler will next be seen in Just Go With It opposite Jennifer Aniston (February 11th), followed by Jack and Jill opposite Adam Sandler in drag later in the year.  Samberg has supporting roles in the upcoming big screen comedies Friends With Benefits and What’s Your Number.

With all due respect to Kevin James, Samberg/Sandler is a more exciting comedic prospect if only thanks to the novelty.  And that’s before you factor in the invigorating potential of a script from Wain and Marino.