Errr cuz he's 86 almost? Not likely gonna get bonded/insured for a studio gig, I can tell you. Regardless, he has a cool retrospective coming up >
http://shareddarkness.com/2008/06/28/aero-blake-edwards.aspx

Down and Out In Beverly Hills? It's a great movie but has nothing to do with Blake Edwards.
Skin Deep is very funny and so is Switch which I consider Blake's last movie. Steve in Switch was homophobic so Amanda's out burst was appropriate and not as offensive as some PC-influenced crap these days. And what's wrong with Howie Mandel?
"Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine." Patti Smith - Gloria.

Studios and bond companies won't insure directors of advanced age or ill health because of the risk that they die or take ill during production and the movie has to be shut down. Robert Altman only got to do A Prairie Home Companion because Paul Thomas Anderson was on set everyday ready to take over if something happened to him. It's back-breaking, directing a film, and apparently a lifetime of it takes a physical tol16d0l - so Edwards might not even be up to the task of helming a film.
But yeah, people are too harsh on his 80s output. I'll give that A Fine Mess, Switch, Sunset, the last Panther films and The Man Who Loved Women are misfires - to say the least, for some of them. But Skin Deep, slandered so badly two posts up, is pretty great and prefigured a lot of what happened in comedy in the late-90s, specifically There's Something About Mary. The dog gag is recylced from Edwards and he does it much better. Not to mention how great Ritter is and how personal and dark the material was against such a light tone. And personally, I laughed a hell of a lot. Same goes for Blind Date, which is very entertaining as 80s comedies go.
Indeed, what I like most about S.O.B, Skin Deep, That's Life, 10 and Micki and Maude (all underrated, imo) is how personal and intimate they are. Many filmmakers start out making the personal and intimate films and then devolve into more broad movies, especially people who found themselves, like Edwards, working in the 80s. But Edwards did it in reverse, all at big studios with big projects and big stars, and was able to make these great personal statements late in his career. That cylce of movies seems autobiographical, at least emotionally, whereas earlier in his career you can definitely see him working within industry trends with the projects he selected.

Well that's a rather subjective view to take. Personally I found 'Skin Deep' to have more brains than many modern comedies put together, and 'That's Life!' to be a moving and inteliigent examination of mid-life crises.
True 'Son of the Pink Panther' was a mess, but apparently most of it was actually directed by Geoffrey Edwards - and it showed! It lacked the older Edwards' care and attention and smooth polish, that film did resemble a lot of the scrappy comedies you get today, including the Steve Martin Panther film.
But the man is in his late 80's as has been said before, and he looks frial, walks with a stick etc. That said, a French director has just completed a film at the age of 90, so is there really an age limit to directors?

however it seems the studios don't go for high-quality comedy, only low-brow Adam Sandler type stuff!
A legitimate complaint, but let's not forget that BE's last theatrically released film was
Son of the Pink Panther
fifteen years ago. Can't get much lower-brow than that. (Well, see
A Fine Mess
, below.)
Switch
was kind of a guilty pleasure in parts, too crude in others ("Amanda"'s inexplicable homophobic verbal abuse toward a gay psychic was totally out of place.)
The less said about his two Bruce Willis projects, the better.
Ditto for
Skin Deep
, a "comedy" with not a single genuine laugh, including a glow-in-the-dark dueling condoms scene that was funnier on paper than in execution.
A Fine Mess
starred Ted Danson and Howie Mandel'nuff said.
That's Life
was at least a noble effort.
The Man Who Loved Women
took an excellent Franois Truffaut film and tried to make it work for American audiences. Maybe he attempted this because he was so successful turning an unknown 1931 German film into
Victor/Victoria
, but he wasn't so lucky this time around.
(Okay,
Down and Out in Beverly Hills
was a good remake of a French film, but it doesn't happen often!)
So there you have it. His last truly successful film was 26 years ago, and for the next 11 years he kept pluggin' away until wisely deciding to take his last great success to Broadway, restoring Julie to the stage glory that she'd had with
My Fair Lady
three decades earlier.
Anyway, that's my take on his apparent retirement. If I were him, I'd rest on my laurels too.
"Well, for once the rich white man is in control!"
C. M. Burns

He's got loads of unfilmed scripts and projects going, however it seems the studios don't go for high-quality comedy, only low-brow Adam Sandler type stuff! Plus it looks like he's moved mainly into theatre now anyway as his last two products have been stage works. A shame really, but then he is getting old in years.