Fred Savage to Direct Charlize Theron Vehicle ‘Ladies Night’ (Exclusive)

Fred Savage is in negotiations to direct Charlize Theron in the comedy Ladies Night.

David Ellison‘s Skydance Productions is financing the film, which is being eyed as an early 2014 production.

The project represents another major jump in the unlikely career evolution of Savage, a one-time child actor who has morphed into one of Hollywood’s hottest TV directors. The Wonder Years star is bucking the trend of child actors with downward career trajectories and instead is following in the footsteps of Ron Howard, Jodie Foster and Brian Robbins, who became big-screen directors working with A-list talent.

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The Bridesmaids-esque comedy also marks a departure for Theron, who rarely works in the genre (though she recently signed on for the Seth MacFarlane comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West). Theron will star in and produce Ladies Night, which centers on a woman who, when confronted with her longtime boyfriend’s inability to commit, decides to have one last night on the town with her girlfriends before uprooting her life and moving to New York.

David Caspe (Happy Endings) wrote the screenplay based on his original pitch. Theron has been developing with Beth Kono and AJ Dix through their Denver and Delilah banner.

Ladies Night has no distributor yet. Ellison will produce alongside Skydance’s Dana Goldberg. Upcoming Skydance projects include G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Star Trek Into Darkness and World War Z. 

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Savage’s TV helming credits include Modern Family and 2 Broke Girls. This pilot season, he was tapped to direct two pilots: Jacked Up for CBS/Sony/Happy Madison and The McCarthys at CBS — pulling off the rare double of doing a single- and a multicamera comedy.

Savage is repped by CAA and attorney Karl Austen.

Theron, whose upcoming credits include Mad Max: Fury Road, is handled by WME and attorneys Gretchen Rush and Steve Warren.

Email: Tatiana.Siegel@THR.com, Twitter: @TatianaSiegel27