The body-swap comedy is an age-old tradition in Hollywood that dates all the way back to the 1976 Walt Disney film Freaky Friday starring a young Jodi Foster. While that film featured a mother and daughter swapping bodies, since then we’ve seen many different versions of that idea including father and son (Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son), grandfather and grandson (18 Again), and even geek and goddess (The Hot Chick) switching lives. Now a new take on the classic comedic theme is about to hit theaters with The Change-Up, which opens on August 5^th and features two best friends (Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds) trading places in a hard R-Rated movie.

Directed by Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin, the film promises to push the hard R-rating, in a summer of R-rated comedies, and deliver an over-the-top body-swapping movie the likes of which has never been seen before. The film stars Bateman as Dave, a successful married lawyer with three young children, and Reynolds as his best friend Mitch, a part-time actor and full-time ladies man. The two friends have begun to drift apart due to their different lifestyles but after getting together for a night of drinking and catching up, the boys urinate into a “magical fountain” and make a wish to trade lives. The result: they both wake up in the other person’s body. Now, Dave and Mitch must literally step into each other’s shoes and keep up appearances until they can find a solution to their predicament.

IAR recently attended a press conference for the film, along with several other members of the press, and had a chance to speak with director David Dobkin, as well as the film’s stars Jason Bateman (Horrible Bosses), Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern), and Olivia Wilde (Cowboys and Aliens).

Leslie Mann, who’s best known for her roles in husband Judd Apatow’s 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up has officially signed on to co-star with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman in the upcoming film Change-Up, about two friends who somehow manage to switch bodies (sounds a bit like 17 Again, which also featured Mann).

White-hot Olivia Wilde ("House", upcoming TRON: Legacy and Cowboys & Aliens) has just joined Universal's The Change-Up, a high-concept comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman. David Dobkin (The Wedding Crashers) is directing from a script written by Scott Moore and Jon Lucas (The Hangover). That's a comedy all-star team right there!