The futuristic comedy Used Guys was mothballed three years back when a spiralling budget and the other commitments of stars Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller made it an impractical proposition. But it looks like it's not quite dead in the water after all, with the news today that Ben Stiller is once again in talks to star as the film is rebooted as "more of a romantic comedy".

The plug was originally pulled on the film just a month prior to shooting on the basis that the sets would not be complete in time, delaying the film and making it impossible to finish shooting prior to Stiller and then-co-star Jim Carrey's other commitments kicking in. It later became apparent, however, that the problem was with the budget, with Fox pulling out when it sailed north of $110 million despite both stars and then-director Jay Roach taking paycuts to keep it under control.

Now, Little Miss Sunshine's Jonathan Drayton and Valerie Faris are in talks to direct, and Reese Witherspoon has been "approached" to play the female lead. The film was originally centred on a pair of obsolete pleasure clones - we're guessing that, in the rewrite, it centres more on just one of them, and the girl/ clone/ whatever that he loves.

Stiller and Witherspoon were set to star together last year in a new film for Cameron Crowe, but that doesn't seem to have moved very far, so this could be their first collaboration.