Recently Variety reported that The Weinstein Co.'s Dimension Films has set Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) to star in School for Scoundrels, a remake of the 1960 British comedy. Todd Phillips, who wrote the script with Scot Armstrong, will direct. Phillips will produce with Dan Goldberg and Geyer Kosinski (Bad News Bears). Kosinski is producing via his Media Talent Group shingle.

Phillips and Armstrong, who collaborated on Starsky & Hutch, Old School and Road Trip, have been working for several years to find a contemporary context for the comedy.

In the new pic, Heder plays a down-on-his-luck meter reader who enrolls in a confidence-building class so he can win the love of his dream girl. The class turns out to be something quite different once it becomes clear to the young man that his professor (Thornton) has set his sights on the same woman.

Thornton has been a Weinstein staple, following his Oscar-winning work on Sling Blade with the raucous black comedy Bad Santa.

After playing the title role in Napoleon Dynamite Heder has followed with a role in the upcoming Just Like Heaven and stars in comedy The Benchwarmers

The comedy will shoot in New York and L.A. in October for release next spring. It becomes one of several projects Bob and Harvey Weinstein have mobilized for the post-Disney Dimension label.

School for Scoundrels was released September 29th, 2006 and stars Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Heder, Jacinda Barrett, Michael Clarke Duncan, Sarah Silverman, David Cross, Matt Walsh, Horatio Sanz. The film is directed by Todd Phillips.