New Regency, Bold Films and Permut Productions’ Chippendales movie, which tells the wild story about the male exotic dancing enterprise, is gaining momentum. Sources tell Deadline that Seth Rogen and Elle Fanning are in talks to join the cast. Dev Patel is already on board to star with Craig Gillespie set to direct. If deals close, the project would mark a reunion for Rogen and Gillespie, who just wrapped production on the anticipated Pam and Tommy series for Hulu that bows in February. New Regency is co-financing Chippendales with Bold Films.

David Permut, who has been shepherding the project for two decades, will produce with New Regency and Bold Film. David Litvak, Gary Michael Walters, Michel Litvak and Svetlana Metkina of Bold Films are also producing.

Lauren Blum and Rebecca Angelo are rewriting the script after Craig Williams and Isaac Adamson penned previous drafts.

The movie will follow Steve Banerjee (Patel), who emigrated from India to Playa del Rey to chase the dream of fame and fortune. Bored with pumping gas in the Mobil station he owned, he found an outlet for his entrepreneurial dreams when he acquired the struggling L.A. rock club Destiny II. He transformed it with a new name and theme nights that included female mud wrestling and a “male exotic dance night for ladies only,” with the latter catching on. Banerjee and his partners were presiding over a flesh empire that earned $8 million annually from club receipts and the sales of millions of calendars of its main attractions, with a large amount also coming from touring companies. Early co-creators included Paul Snider, whose Playboy bunny girlfriend Dorothy Stratten helped come up with the signature cuffs and collars uniforms. Snider later would murder Stratten and kill himself. Lawsuits and disputes involving Banerjee followed, leading to a violence-filled descent.

While not confirmed, sources believe Rogen would play Nick De Noia, the choreographer who came up with Chippendales routine. Fanning would play Stratten.

Rogen has a nice range of projects coming up in 2022 with a mix of dark comedies and serious dramas starting with Pam and Tommy, which tells the tale of how Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s infamous sex tape was stolen. Rogen plays the man that stole said tape. He’ll follow that up with a serious turn in Steven Spielberg’s The Fablemans, which is inspired by the iconic director’s childhood and has Rogen playing the main character’s favorite uncle.

Fanning’s Hulu series The Great just had its Season 2 premiere over the Thanksgiving break and has earned her another round of strong reviews for her role as Catherine the Great. In 2022, she has the Hulu limited series The Girl From Plainville, which is based on the national news story of the high school girl accused of talking her boyfriend into committing suicide.

Both Rogen and Fanning are repped by UTA. Rogen is also repped by Principal Entertainment LA, with Fanning repped by Echo Lake Entertainment. [Source]