Bobby Farrelly is to direct 'Driver's Ed'.
The 66-year-old filmmaker – who has worked on comedy films such as 'Dumb and Dumber' and 'Kingpin' with his brother Peter Farrelly – is set to take on the teen ensemble comedy as his next project.
'Driver's Ed' has gained traction in recent months and casting is underway for an early 2025 shoot in North Carolina.
The picture tells the story of teenagers who steal the school driver's ed car to go on a road trip to help a high school senior track down his college freshman girlfriend and win her back.
Jonas and Jennifer Pate have commissioned and developed the original screenplay by Thomas Moffett and the project is the first of a new cost-efficient movie slate that they are putting together.
Producers will include the Pates and TFC Management's David Stone as well as Ford and Aghi Koh of AGC. Farrelly and Scott Lambert will serve as executive producers on the flick.
Ford said: "When the Pates and David Stone brought us this unbelievably charming script, we immediately saw the crowd-pleasing potential of the film with audiences of all ages.
"To now have a director with Bobby's amazing commercial track record onboard puts 'Driver's Ed' on a really exciting trajectory towards production early next year."
The Farrelly brothers have worked together on the new Christmas film 'Dear Santa'- with Bobby behind the camera and Peter on screenwriting duties – and Bobby revealed that the 12-year development process for the picture was necessary.
He told Far Out magazine: "It took that long to get it right.
"This is kind of a delicate idea, and so it has to be done correctly, particularly being a Christmas movie. We wanted to make sure that it comes out like a sweet movie at the end, and that took a little doing."
'Dear Santa' is the first festive film that the brothers have ever made but Peter suggested that it wasn't something on their bucket list because they aren't "great planners".
He said: "We're not great planners. For one thing, people have asked me, like, 'How do you do your movies? Do you have a thing you're going to do: a comedy, then a drama, then this?'
"We just... The universe brings something to us at a certain time, and we focus on that thing. I always wanted to make a horror movie, we've never done that."
'Dear Santa' sees Jack Black star as Satan – who visits a child after he misspells Santa in his letter – and the Farrelly brothers were keen to reunite with the actor – who they previously worked with on the 2001 flick 'Shallow Hal'.
Peter, 67, said: "We love Jack. We had a great time with him. He's fantastic. I think he was the first person we went to with this, which is very rare.
"Usually, we get shot down. We take a very zen view of casting because we get shot down all the time, and then we end up with the right person, so we don't worry about it."
