By Michael Fleming

NEW YORK (Variety) - DreamWorks has made a three-year first-look deal with Ben Stiller and his Red Hour Films banner, and the studio has begun that relationship by paying $2.6 million to Warner Bros. to import Stiller's dream project, an adaptation of the Budd Schulberg classic Hollywood novel "What Makes Sammy Run."

Stiller will direct and star as soulless Hollywood hustler Sammy Glick who, armed with little talent, gladly takes credit for the hard work of others and steps over them on his way to the top. He also wrote the script with Jerry Stahl.

Along with producer Gene Kirkwood, Stiller labored for years with "On the Waterfront" writer Schulberg to mount the period film. Even as Stiller's own currency has grown exponentially thanks to a string of hits like "There's Something About Mary" and "Meet the Parents," the project languished at WB. The $2.6 million that DreamWorks has paid to WB covers the cost of commissioning numerous draft scripts.

"Sammy" becomes Red Hour's second active project at DreamWorks, with the studio also developing "Date School," a comic vehicle about the proprietor of a Learning Annex-type dating school who road tests his theories when he falls for a student. Red Hour was previously based at New Line Cinema.

Reuters/Variety

[What Ever Happened To The Movie of What Makes Sammy Run?]

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