Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures is in early talks with Jason Bateman to star with Vince Vaughn in The Insane Laws, a comedy that will mark the feature directorial debut of screenwriter Jeremy Garelick. Universal picked up the project in March after Sony Pictures put it into turnaround. Neal Moritz and his Original Film banner is still producing it, and Vaughn has been eyeing it for some time. He and Garelick have been close since Garelick co-write the Vaughn-starrer The Break-Up. Garelick also did uncredited script work on The Hangover. The plan is for Bateman and Vaughn to play longtime best friends, who’ve shared everything, from college to the time both got married and had kids at the same time. Cut to when those kids are away at college, and, unbeknownst to their parents, falling in love. The best friend relationship is sorely tested when the daughter of Vaughn’s character gets pregnant. The actors just did a read-through of the material, and it could be in production by the fall. Studio is high on Bateman after he starred with Ryan Reynolds in the David Bobkin-directed role-changing comedy The Change-Up, which opens Aug. 5. CAA and 3 Arts rep Bateman, while UTAnd Principato-Young rep Garelick.