Regency lines up Girl

Greenfield to helm comedy-drama

Regency Enterprises has invited over “The Girl Next Door” for Luke Greenfield (“The Animal”) to direct.

The comedy-drama, in the spirit of “Risky Business,” centers on a driven high school senior with political aspirations who falls in love with the seemingly perfect girl-next-door, only to discover that she’s a porn star.

Emile Hirsch (“The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys,” “The Emperor’s Club”) will topline with Elisha Cuthbert, best known as Kiefer Sutherland’s daughter on Fox series “24.” Hirsch, repped by UTA and Sam Maydew at Popart Films, just wrapped the title role on “Mudge Boy,” the Stanley Tucci-produced indie.

Chuck Gordon, Harry Gittes and Marc Sternberg will be producers for “Girl,” set to start lensing Jan. 6 in Los Angeles. Exec VP Peter Cramer is spearheading the project for Fox-based Regency on behalf of production prexy Sanford Panitch.

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Gordon said he has long sought a project for Greenfield since seeing his 10-minute short “The Right Hook.” “I’ve probably shown the short to more people than Luke has,” he added.

Greenfield stressed “Girl” will go beyond repeating the themes of 1983’s “Risky Business,” Tom Cruise’s breakout pic. “The script was very tricky because we’ve never seen a movie like this before,” added Greenfield, who co-wrote it with Stuart Blumberg and Chris McKenna.

Blumberg also wrote “Keeping the Faith” and “Fear Itself” for Miramax, and will produce the film with Hawk Koch and Edward Norton.

Greenfield’s next directing job will be another comedy-drama — either an untitled project written by Robert Kuhn (“The Cure”) for Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke at ImageMovers; or “Fake Liar Cheat,” based on a William Blake Herron (“The Bourne Identity”) adaptation of Tod Goldberg’s book.

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Lynna Burgamy

Update: 2024-09-09

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