Tower Heist, a film that was initially titled Trump Heist and has been in various stages of development for years,

Tower Heist Greenlit by Universal Pictures
August 23rd, 2010

Tower Heist, a film that was initially titled Trump Heist and has been in various stages of development for years, has finally been greenlit by Universal Pictures, according to Deadline New York.

Ben Stiller is starring in the film and Brett Ratner is directing from a script that has been worked on in various stages by writers like Ted Griffin, Noah Baumbach and Jeff Nathanson. Previous writers, when the film was an African-American ensemble film about a group of workers planning to rob Trump Towers, include Russell Gewirtz, Rawson Marshall Thurber and Leslie Dixon. Here's how Brett Ratner described the project:

"It has become the quintessential New York heist movie, where a bunch of blue collar employees in a tower building pull off the ultimate heist."

Ben Stiller will star as the manager of a luxury apartment facility and he, along with many of his co-workers, lost their pensions to a white-collar crook. Ben Stiller's character and four of his colleagues discover that the thief is being held on house arrest in the penthouse of their building and they hatch a plan to rob him.

The site reports that production on the film has been slated to start in November, with filming to take place in New York City.

Tower Heist comes to theaters in 2011 and stars Ben Stiller. The film is directed by Brett Ratner.