There are a lot of things that last year’s Silver Linings Playbook got right, and the film and its cast and crew have the awards to show for it. Should there have been a category for “Best Reminder of an Actor’s Likeability,” the re-emergence of Chris Tucker would have certainly secured the trophy. The prospect of another Rush Hour sequel still makes my skeleton groan, but I’m happy to pass on the news that his next role will be in an original comedy.
Tucker will return to a leading role in Relativity Media’s Second Honeymoon, which will be directed by Phil Joanou (Gridiron Gang), no stranger to career hiatuses himself. (You might remember he directed the pretty stellar Punisher: Dirty Laundry short last year.) He’ll be working form a script written by Peter Gaulke, who wrote the mildly disappointing comedy The Babymakers, and Kevin Heffernan, a founding member of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, responsible for Super Troopers and Beerfest. This is quite a crew they’ve got going.
Second Honeymoon title is no metaphor, and it centers on a couple returning to Antigua, the same place they celebrated their initial honeymoon ten years earlier. Things get hectic however, once they realize their previous visit has become notorious, and the vacation becomes less about celebrating and more about leaving the island intact. Heffernan’s involvement has me thinking this will get a little over-the-top, but so long as it isn’t derivative of too many other films, it has a fighting chance. I know I’m not the only one picturing Tucker going underwater off of the island and popping back up, hollering out with his signature vocal pitch…and running away from people while hollering…and getting into fisticuffs while hollering…and so on.
Depending on who they get for the female lead, it doesn’t look like anyone has anything on their schedule, so this may head into production quickly.
