Variety is reporting that action superstar Dwayne Johnson and comedy sensation Kevin Hart will combine their gifts for New Line’s buddy action-comedy Central Intelligence, to be directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber of We’re the Millers and Dodgeball fame.
Hart will play a former high school sports star turned accountant who, on the eve of a class reunion, is contacted by a former classmate who used to be a bullied “loser” but is now a contract killer for the CIA. In case you hadn’t guessed, that zero-to-hero is played by Johnson, who will recruit Hart’s character to help foil a plot to sell classified military secrets.
Scott Stuber (Ted, Identity Thief) will produce through his Bluegrass Films banner, along with Peter Principato and Paul Young of Principato-Young Entertainment. Ed Helms, who worked with Thurber on “Millers,” is executive producing. Ike Barinholtz and Dave Stassen wrote the original script, with Sean Anders and John Morris penning a subsequent draft and Thurber taking another pass on the latest script.
Central Intelligence will begin shooting in the spring, with Johnson also in development on two more “Journey to the Center of the Earth” sequels as well as playing Black Adam in Shazam, both for New Line. Hart has just finished filming a Ride Along sequel and has comedies The Wedding Ringer and Get Hard ready for release in early 2015.
