Funny man Ben Stiller has signed on to star in and possibly direct a new comedy entitled "Tropic Thunder", described as a war movie with a comedy twist.

The story focuses on a band of actors who get stuck in a military-charged region. They manage to survive the predicament with knowledge gained in their two-weeks actors boot camp.

Stiller himself had been tweaking with the story idea ever since appearing in the overlooked Spielberg war drama "Empire Of The Sun" (Ben's first big screen role). He wrote the script with friends Justin Theroux (the crazy Irishman in "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle) and Etan Cohen (no relation to the famous brothers).

This would be a great opportunity for Ben to help his fans forget 2001's "Zoolander", and come back to his "Reality Bites" roots.