
BREAKING: New Line has bought Spy Guys, an action comedy pitch to be scripted by Due Date scribe Adam Sztykiel. Jorma Taccone will direct and John Rickard will produce through his Rickard Pictures banner along with the Lonely Island Boys.
While attending a friend’s wedding in Europe, a CIA operative is framed and becomes an enemy of the state. Now on his own, he’s forced to reveal his true identity to his average Joe buddies to enlist their help. When they aid his escape, they become wanted as accomplices and must go on the run together to clear their names. This is a big fun movie in the along the lines of Ocean’s 11 meets Mission: Impossible, and the hope is that Taccone will attract a hot young ensemble cast. Taccone, who was part of the team responsible for all those SNL Digital Shorts, helmed MacGruber.
Rickard has a first look deal at New Line and is separately developing Rampage and Redemption for the studio. He is also an exec producer on Jack The Giant Killer and was a co-producer on Final Destination 5, Horrible Bosses, Hall Pass and A Nightmare On Elm Street. Michael Disco and Sam Brown will oversee Spy Guys for New Line.
Adam Sztykiel is repped by UTA and Kaplan/Perrone. Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schaffer and Andy Samberg (The Lonely Island Boys) are repped by UTA and Mosaic.


like a mac truck from hell with crystal blue gorgeous headlights- rickard cant be stopped. next generation of big dog producers.
Congratz to John Rickard! A real pro and a great guy.
Sounds more like “Mission Impossible” meets “Hangover.” I’m in.
A man responsible for both Due Date and MacGruber gets another chance? Yikes.
This has an absolute disaster written all over it. First, Avika bombs with that horrible movie this summer with Stiller, Jonah and Vince, Samberg and That’s My Boy was a complete and total horror show and now Taccone will complete the Lonely Boys trifecta.
It’s so bad that ‘Hall Pass’ thinks it’s bad.
“Hot young cast” = appointments for casting with UTA talent only I guess.
So the hope is that the director of Macgruber will help attract talent? I don’t understand this business
i agree with hollywood insider. as an outsider, i can learn from you and your opinions. good to know the true players are up at 1am making dead serious negative comments on an announcement. also, macgruber is hilarious. if you squint, you can act like its not ryan phillipe- and then it is really hilarious.
“a big fun movie” for whom? 12 year old boys?
i’m dating myself here but this is more like GOTCHA meets CLOAK AND DAGGER. Dig up Allan Carr, please, and Universal marketing dept circa 1985. They’ll NAIL it…..
-RnsW
Channing Tatum to be attached in 5…..4….3….
Once again a story is posted and the comments are full of a bunch of jealous hater wannabees critical of the sale or success of another director or writer. In case you didn’t notice, regardless of MacGruber’s disapointing box office the movie has shipped over a quarter million units in packaged media (*Neilsen + Wal-mart), has done $8m+ in VOD / digital sales, sold to TV, cable and foreign outlets and has gone on to become a cult movie (with fans already asking for a sequel), all in two short years (and for a movie that had a 10m budget). Spend more time perfecting your craft and less time critizing other people’s success and one day you’ll have a story on here so YOU can be hated on. Congrats, Lonely Island boys, you’ve come a long way since “Awesometown”.
They’re no longer just “The Lonely Island”?
Too bad this won’t get made. Just another fluff announcement for the frat boys over at New Line once again slowly sinking the ship, but this time they’re out of life rafts.
Rickard’s deal at New Line is a total joke. He’s Toby’s watchdog on set since Toby can’t bring himself to be on a movie set. That makes sense for a guy running a glorified production company! Handing out credits is free and anyone on the inside knows it’s all nonsense. Rickard would never get a shot at real studio because everyone knows the truth.