Sony has been toying with an “I Dream of Jeannie” movie for years – in fact, they were trying to court Alicia Silverstone into the bottle in the mid ’90s; that’s how long they’ve been at this thing!

Now, after a number of false starts, The Los Angeles Times reports that “United States of Tara” writer Sheila Callaghan has been assigned to write a new draft of the “Jeannie” movie.

The paper says the difficultly the studio has faced in the past, in regards to the film version, is how to pull the story out of the ’60s and make it more contemporary.

Keira Knightley was touted for the role of made famous by Barbara Eden on the small screen a couple of years back.