Confused yet? NBC recently picked up the romantic comedy pilot “Friends With Benefits,” being developed by Imagine TV, Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin and the writers behind (500) Days of Summer. Paramount Pictures is making the Ivan Reitman-directed romantic comedy Friends With Benefits, which will star Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman and is scheduled for a Jan. 7, 2011 release. And now Justin Timberlake is in talks to star in a romantic comedy from Screen Gems, also titled Friends With Benefits.
The Screen Gems feature will be directed by Will Gluck (upcoming Easy A). Deadline New York says that in the film, “a headhunter recruits a magazine editor and since each is too busy to find a mate, they agree to sleep together with no strings attached. Things get complicated when the guy falls for the girl, who’s dating someone else.”
The site adds that Screen Gems registered the title before Paramount, so the latter would have to change their title. However, if NBC moves forward with their series there’s not much Screen Gems can do about it.