2.24.14 Update: Warner Bros. will release “Get Hard” on March 27, 2015.
For years, at least in some circles, comedian Kevin Hart was known as the uppity Smart Tech Customer who almost clapped up Jay (Romany Malco) in Judd Apatow‘s “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” The scene is hilarious (watch below), now a classic in some circles (definitely around The Playlist watercooler), and Hart stole the show. The dimunitive comedian (5’2″) has since shot up. His 2011 stand-up comedy documentary “Laugh at My Pain” turned Tinstletown heads when it earned $2 million dollars in its first week of limited release. It was one of the most solid per screen averages of the year and the film, produced for only $750,000, eventually grossed $7 million. Clearly there was an audience out there for Kevin Hart that Hollywood was just waking up to.
Hart hosted the BET awards in 2011, in the spring he starred in the ensemble African-American rom-com “Think Like A Man” (it grossed $99 million off a $12 million budget) and in September of this year he hosted the MTV Music Video Awards. Suffice to say the comedian has arrived. For an encore? Teaming up with Will Ferrell for the comedy “Get Hard” that Warner Bros. is interested in acquiring.
According to Deadline, Ferrell would play a rich, soft-handed investment bank manager who is sentenced to a maximum security prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He hires Hart, a streetwise guy who normally washes his car, to get him ready to do hard time in the 30 days before he has to report to prison.
“Get Hard” was written by Ian Roberts and Jay Martel, the current showrunners on Comedy Central’s “Key & Peele.” Ferrell and Adam McKay‘s Gary Sanchez shingle will produce. Frankly, this one seems like a lot of fun, but who knows, Gary Sanchez has a lot of projects in development that Ferrell is attached to and we’ve seen at least half a dozen get announced in the last two or three years and not all of them have come to pass yet. Such is the development game, but if Warner Bros. gets involved that could expedite the process. Maybe after “Anchorman 2: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy“?
