Kevin Hart is one of the biggest comedic actors going right now, but he has never lost touch with his roots with the actors and filmmakers inside the Judd Apatow circle. Some of Hart's earliest TV work was starring in three episodes of Undeclared, and he has followed that with small parts in movies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Drillbit Taylor, The Five Year Engagement, and, most recently, This is The End. Now that he has big has huge hits like Ride Along and Think Like A Man under his belt, he's apparently ready to leave the supporting parts behind and become a leading man with those same frequent collaborators.
Nicholas Stoller - who worked with Hart on The Five-Year Engagement - has revealed to SlashFilm that he is currently developing a script that he hopes will have Hart and Seth Rogen playing co-lead roles. While the film doesn't seem to have a title yet, it will be a period piece about the first time a black cop and a white cop became partners. Explained the director,
"The next thing I want to direct is this thing for Seth [Rogen] and Kevin Hart. It’s basically about the first white cop black cop pairing in history. That takes place in the late ’40s and they have to bust jazz musicians for weed. It’s kind of a Baz Luhrman world mixed with Tarantino shit. It’s a lot of things."
Rodney Rothman penned the script, which is fitting given that he wrote two of the three Undeclared episodes that Hart appeared in (Rogen was a regular on the show) and also had a hand in penning the boxing movie Grudge Match:
Stoller made his directorial debut in 2008 with the Jason Segel comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and if all goes according to plan, this buddy cop movie will be his fifth feature. His latest, Neighbors, premiered at SXSW earlier this year to excellent reviews and will be arriving in theaters next month:
Do you like the sound of a buddy cop movie with Kevin Hart and Seth Rogen? The two of them remain some of the busiest comedians out there, so it's hard to say when a period piece like this one may come together, but I personally couldn't be more excited for this idea.
