Ben Stiller's quest to be a respected director continues

In one of the more surprising trade announcements last year, it was reported that comedy actor/director Ben Stiller was being lined up to take over the 60's socio-political drama based on the true tale of The Trial of the Chicago 7, a movie Steven Spielberg was aggressively trying to get made at the beginning of 2008 from an Aaron Sorkin (Charlie Wilson's War, A Few Good Men) script. Strange because Stiller has only ever made really broad comedies and hadn't previously ever shown a desire to tackle something this serious. Now that project still isn't off the ground, it hasn't stopped Stiller from looking elsewhere into progressing his career behind the camera. He has been hired by Particpiant Media to direct Help Me Spread Goodness, a 2008 Black List script (list of the best unproduced screenplays of the year) from Mark Friedman. The movie revolves around a Chicago banker who gets swindled in a Nigerian Internet scam and loses his sun's college fund, presumably from one of those scamming e-mails we get everyday. Banker then travels to Nigeria to confront the con-merchant. The script is said to be serious but with comic overtones. Stiller is probably favourite to star in the picture too and I hate to play devil's advocate, but with Stiller's involvment I would expect any of the serious subject matters the script tackles to be overtaken by slapstick, social awkard humor and Stiller making a part of himself. Don't ya think?