Stiller, Cruise as ‘Hardy Men’?

One’s a white-hot, A-list movie star. The other is Tom Cruise.

Ben Stiller and the “Mission: Impossible” veteran may join forces in “Hardy Men,” a feature film update of “The Hardy Boys,” 20th Century Fox said Tuesday.

The film, which is still in development and has neither a screenplay nor a production start date, would be directed by “Night at the Museum’s” Shawn Levy. The plot calls for the brothers to end their long estrangement to solve a big case.

The teenage “Hardy Boys” sleuths were featured in scores of books and were part of the 1970s television series “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries.”

Stiller is one of the most successful actors in Hollywood; his and Levy’s “Night at the Museum” has grossed more than $232 million. Cruise’s most recent movie, on the other hand, was “Mission: Impossible 3,” the worst performing of the Ethan Hunt movies. Cruise’s long-running production deal at Paramount Pictures was severed, and the actor is now co-running United Artists.

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John Horn