Todd Phillips options Rolling Stone stoner article as possible next directing gig

When you've been at the helm of as many successful R-rated comedies as Todd Phillips, you can pretty much afford to do whatever you want. What studio in their right mind would tell you no? Not even counting both of his The Hangover flicks, with the sequel earning over $500M globally, he's still got greats like Old School and Road Trip on his resume. Pretty sweet. While he's yet to firmly land on his next directorial effort, he may be taking steps along those lines, as Variety reports his Green Hat Films banner has optioned the rights to a Rolling Stone article Arms and the Dudes.

Dudes was part of the March 31st issue of Rolling Stone, written by Guy Lawson, covering a pair of stoner buddies who became major weapons dealers. David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli were given a multi-milliion dollar contract by the Pentagon to arm our allies in Afghanistan. Things went south though as their offices were eventually raided by the FBI, leading to more than 70 counts of fraud. Your tax dollars at work, America.

Right now Phillips is only on board as a producer, but he's being looked at to possibly direct. Just on the face of it this sounds like it's going to be tweaked into a comedy. Think Pineapple Express meets Lord of War. But it could work, and Phillips has proven to be box office gold.