‘We’re the Millers’: A fresh supply of stoner comedy?

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EXCLUSIVE: The stoner comedy has a long and illustrious tradition, starting with the oeuvre of Cheech & Chong and continuing right through ‘Pineapple Express’ and the antics of Harold & Kumar.

We may soon be able to add another to the genre: ‘We’re the Millers,’ a long-developed film that’s now getting some new momentum. In the film, which is being developed by New Line, slackers aren’t sitting around taking puffs and dreaming big. In fact the main character in this one, a veteran pot dealer, is actually pretty ambitious -- so ambitious that he decides to create a fake family (the eponymous Millers) to move a large shipment of marijuana across the U.S. border from Mexico.
New Line and producers are narrowing down their director search on the film. Sources say that Burr Steers, coming off his ‘Charlie St. Cloud’ this summer, is a finalist to land the director’s chair, as is the duo of Sean Anders and John Morris (the pair wrote ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ and directed the road-trip bawdiness that was ‘Sex Drive’).

‘Millers’ comes with a strong comedic pedigree: Dan Fybel and Rich Rinaldi, who’ve written scripts for TV series such as ‘The Sarah Silverman Program’ and ‘The Hard Life of R.J. Berger’ have written the latest draft of the script. (Steve Faber and Bob Fisher, best known for ‘Wedding Crashers,’ wrote the original draft.) Steve Buscemi was attached to star a few years ago, back when ‘Millers’ was first coming together, but producers probably will be re-casting.

With medical marijuana getting an increasing amount of attention in California, it’s time we suppose, for another stoner comedy. Or high time.

--Steven Zeitchik

http://twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT