Since playing the leading role in Iron Man Robert Downey, Jr. has rocketed back onto the film scene and everyone it seems wants to work with him. The latest is director Todd Phillips in his new film Due Date. If you don’t recognize Phillips’ name you’ve certainly heard of his last project, The Hangover, which grossed over $400 million worldwide. With that film such a critical success, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Due Date become another hit.

Downey leads an all star cast including Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover, Bored to Death), Michelle Monaghan (Made of Honor) and Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx, who starred opposite Downey in The Soloist. Due Date also brings back much of the talent behind The Hangover and sounds like it will draw on the same elements that made that film so hilarious:

“Downey plays Peter Highman, an expectant first-time father whose wife’s due date is a mere five days away.  As Peter hurries to catch a flight home from Atlanta to be at her side for the birth, his best intentions go completely awry when a chance encounter with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) forces Peter to hitch a ride with Ethan—on what turns out to be a cross-country road trip that will ultimately destroy several cars, numerous friendships and Peter’s last nerve.”

Downey and Galifianakis’ journey will be as much a road trip on film as it is in real life.  Production is set to take place across the USA in Georgia, New Mexico, Arizona and Los Angeles. Due Date is scheduled for a Fall 2010 release.

After The Hangover grossed over $200 million in the domestic box office, it looks like Warner Bros. is ready to give director Todd Philips and his cast another chance to make them some money. With Zach Galifianakis moving on to some other projects like HBO’s Bored to Death and a few other things, Variety reports that we may be seeing yet another “morning after” situation in as little as two years:

Galifianakis will play one of the two leads in “Due Date”, an Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland script that was revised by Adam Sztykiel. In the comedy about fatherhood, an expectant dad and his unlikely travel companion (Galifianakis) race cross-country in hopes of making it home for the birth of his first child.

Both “Due Date” and “The Hangover 2″ will follow the same production track as “The Hangover.” The plan is for the “Due Date” shoot to begin Oct. 6, and the film will be released next year in the first weekend of June, just like “The Hangover.” The sequel will begin production in October 2010 and will be released Memorial Day weekend 2011.

Warner Bros. hired Phillips and Scot Armstrong to begin writing “The Hangover 2″ right after early test scores left the studio optimistic that it had a winner (Daily Variety, April 5).

Since it’s June 5th release, The Hangover has grossed just over $222 million, making it Warner’s highest grossing R-rated comedy, putting it past Wedding Crashers and just underneath Beverly Hills Cop for the supreme title, but analysts expect the film to reach that status by summer’s end.