April 1, 2014 - 15:06 AMT
Ben Stiller in talks to join Alan Ball's "I Am Chippendales"

Ben Stiller is in talks to join Alan Ball's I Am Chippendales, a film about the founding of the famous male exotic dance troupe, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Ball, the former showrunner of HBO's vampire drama True Blood, will helm the pic as well as write the script based on Rodney Sheldon’s book. The story centers on Paul Snider and Somen Banerjee, founders of the dance group that eventually became one of the biggest adult entertainment shows in the world.

Stiller would play choreographer Nick de Noia, who helped come up with the idea for the show and assisted in expanding it into a worldwide phenomenon. Snider's and Banerjee's tale is a twisted one, with the latter being accused of murdering de Noia in 1987 and planning the murder of attorney/film producer Bruce Nahin (another founder of the group). After Banerjee was jailed, his body was found hanging in his cell.

Permut Presentations and Sentinel Pictures are producing the project.

Stiller most recently hit the big screen with 2013's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (which he also directed). As The Hollywood Reporter first reported in July, Stiller is in talks to direct The Weinstein Company's The Current War, a fact-based drama about Thomas Edison's and George Westinghouse's battle over the supply of electricity.

The Zoolander star recently wrapped work on Noah Baumbach’s While We're Young opposite Naomi Watts and currently is filming Night at the Museum 3.