Last summer’s Hobbs & Shaw saw Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham’s respective Fast & Furious characters reuniting for their own spinoff adventure, and along the way, they crossed paths with an air marshal named Dinkley, played by Kevin Hart. Dinkley ended up helping Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw on their mission, and now there’s word that Statham and Hart might be re-teaming for their own action-packed adventure.
Jason Statham and Kevin Hart are in talks to star in Sony Pictures’ action-comedy The Man from Toronto, which involves a case of mistaken identity involving “the world’s deadliest assassin” and a “New York City screw-up” run into each other at an Airbnb. From there, not only will their personalities clash, but they’ll also face off against deadly killers.
The Man from Toronto already has The Hitman’s Bodyguard’s Patrick Hughes attached to direct, and Robbie Fox wrote the script based off a story he thought up with Jason Blumenthal, who will be one of the producers. Here’s the unusual part: the movie is already for release on November 20 of this year, meaning that production will need to begin by March if it’s going to make that date.
The Hollywood Reporter also mentioned in its writeup that Sony is looking for The Man from Toronto to feel tonally similar to Hobbs & Shaw and the Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart-led Central Intelligence, both of which were commercially successful. The studio clearly isn’t wasting any time trying to get this project off the ground, though whether it’ll be successful in recruiting Hart and Jason Statham remains to be seen.
Of course, when it comes to the action genre, few shine brighter than Jason Statham. From The Transporter movies to The Expendables film series, he has plenty of combat roles under his belt, and he’s also had the opportunity to flex his comedy muscles in the Fast & Furious movies and the Melissa McCarthy-led Spy.
As for Kevin Hart, while his proverbial bread and butter is comedy, he also has some blockbuster experience on his resume. Along with his previously mentioned action movies, Hart has also starred as “Mouse” Finbar in the last two Jumanji movies, both of which have done gangbusters at the box office.
While they didn’t share that much screen time together in Hobbs & Shaw, Jason Statham and Kevin Hart being paired together for The Man from Toronto holds potential. The quick turnaround on this project has me slightly concerned, but talent-wise, there’s no question that these two can hold down both the action and comedy fronts together.
Besides, even if things don’t work out on The Man from Toronto, we could still see them together again on the big screen. There have been talks about making a Hobbs & Shaw sequel, and if that moves forward, Dwayne Johnson has said that Kevin Hart’s Dinkley, as well as Ryan Reynolds’ Locke and Rob Delaney’s Loeb, could all be brought back in bigger capacities.
Regardless, keep checking in with CinemaBlend for updates on The Man from Toronto, as well as what else Jason Statham and Kevin Hart are up to. Don’t forget to browse through our 2020 release schedule.
