Nov 28 2007Matthew Perry Joins '17', Cycle of Endless Age-Changing Movies

There are several lessons you can glean from the popularity and persistence of age-switching comedies like Freaky Friday, Big, and Like Father Like Son.

First, it will be endlessly hilarious if you somehow either age to adulthood or regress to a teenage state overnight, whether due to cursing or surprise wish granting. Second, you will learn an important lesson about being either young or old, depending on which is foreign to you, while remaining largely unfazed that you've experienced proof of magic. And finally, you will discover that people will continually pay to see age-switching comedies, regardless of their quality or originality.

Drawing from this third principle, New Line has a new film in the works that "turns the concept of Big on its head," with Zac Efron playing the 17-year-old version of a just-cast Matthew Perry.

Is this more insulting to Zac Efron, who now must suppose he could age into a fleshy tube and get a reasonable human haircut, or to Matthew Perry, whose youth is being personified as an anime damsel? It might be a tie.

Perry will go from pop to prep for '17' [Hollywood Reporter]