Game Change director Jay Roach lightens up but stays on message for his upcoming political comedy The Campaign, penned by Eastbound & Down's Shawn Harwell and Chris Henchy.

The dude just can't seem to make it happen. Sad thing. Also today: the return of Chris Tucker, Neil Patrick Harris gets an interesting gig, and a comedy about politics seems redundant.

In today's The NY Times, Sharon Waxman looks at why Fox and Sony "pulled the plug" on Used Guys, the long-gestating comedy starring Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, and directed by Meet the Parents/Austin Powers'Jay Roach, a seemingly sure-thing project featuring all the rubber-faced and/or hyperbolically neurotic comedy antics the moviegoing public craves, and which was ready to roll into production about a month from now. The short answer, "How can our poor little studios hope to make any money when the budget is $112 million and the greedy, extortionist talent is sucking up all the back-end profit?" seems deeply unsatisfying to Roach, whose entire worldview was thrown into turmoil and meaninglessness by the abrupt plug-pulling. Reports the Times: