Ben Stiller Dancing With ‘Chippendales’; Alan Ball Pic Being Shopped With Weinstein Co In Pole Position
By MIKE FLEMING JR
Ben Stiller is in early talks to take a lead role in I Am Chippendales, a movie that Alan Ball wrote and will direct that’s being shopped right now. The Weinstein Company is the favorite to make a deal on the film. It’s an adaptation of the Rodney Sheldon book that sounds like a mix between Magic Mike and Scarface. Chippendales tells the story of Steve Banerjee, an immigrant who went from pumping gas in Culver City to running a high-end nightclub that evolved into Chippendales. As the male-stripper concept became a phenomenon in the 1980s at the height of the women’s lib movement, Banerjee was consumed by excess and competition. After hiring a New York choreographer to polish the all-male dance troupe, he became wildly rich, and just as paranoid. Banerjee hired a hitman to murder the choreographer when negotiations went sour. After being arrested, Banerjee died in jail awaiting trial. Stiller will play the choreographer.
David Permut, Alan Ball and Adam Brawer will produce. David Beitchman of Sentinel Pictures, Peter Saphier, Sheldon and Permut Presentation’s Chris Mangano will serve as executive producers. The film will be a co-production between Permut Presentations, Sentinel Pictures and Your Face Goes Here Entertainment.
Stiller wrapped Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young opposite Naomi Watts and is shooting Night At The Museum 3. He’s repped by WME.
