Apatow's latest comedy "Drillbit Taylor" -- about high school bullies getting their comeuppance -- is based on a treatment Hughes wrote years ago for Paramount; he never turned it into a script.

But two years ago, after Apatow's breakout hit "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," the studio enticed him to develop "Drillbit."

Hughes decided to not come aboard but has "story by" credit under his longtime pen name Edmond Dantes, protagonist of Alexander Dumas' novel "The Count of Monte Cristo." It's the first participation in a feature of any sort for Hughes since he received "story by" credit on 2002's "Maid in Manhattan" and 2003's "Beethoven's Fifth."

Hughes doesn't give interviews, has no publicist and lives in Wisconsin. His only Los Angeles-based rep is attorney Jake Bloom, who also doesn't give interviews.

Hughes' fade still surprises many who remember him as Hollywood's dominant comedy force of the 1980s and 1990s, when he turned out more than two dozen screenplays, including the "Vacation" and "Home Alone" franchises and Brat Pack pics like "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink" and "Ferris Buehler's Day Off."

Apatow, who was in high school when Hughes was at his peak in the mid '80s, credits him as a major influence. But even he's never met Hughes.

It's probably fitting that Apatow is bringing a sliver of attention back to Hughes, seeing as he's now as active as Hughes was two decades ago. Apatow has four more comedies coming this year -- "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "Pineapple Express," "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" and "Step Brothers" -- and Jack Black comedy "Year One" already slotted for June 2009.