Jana B. here,
‘Ride Along‘ is still in theaters. Before the proverbial body of the original is even cold, Universal Pictures executives are already planning the sequel. The movie hasn’t even made it to the gap between theatrical release and DVD release, yet! It’s like Hollywood is checking the obituary column of the paper to get the jump on a great rent-control apartment in the city.
Anyhow, it looks like Tim Story is directing ‘Ride Along 2‘ with Ice Cube and Kevin Hart reprising their roles as security guards. The original debuted just five weeks ago and brought in a record opening of $41.5 million and has since grossed over $120 million worldwide as of this weekend. The three-day gross for the film dropped only 9% even as they dropped 283 screens. OK, so it’s a big moneymaker. Maybe I’d be a little more excited about a sequel if the film was cast as originally intended, with Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds in the lead roles. Scott Bernstein and Larry Brezner are producing the sequel.
Story, has directed ‘Barbershop‘, ‘Fantastic Four‘ and it’s sequel ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer‘ and is working on ‘Think Like a Man Too‘. So he’s had his success with sequels so far.
Kevin Hart is showing up in a laundry list of projects without this sequel being added. He is starring with Will Ferrell in ‘Get Hard‘. Hart will play the streetwise mentor to Farrell’s investment banker who is trying to harden up before he starts serving a sentence in a maximum security prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Hart is also voicing a character in a project my kids are excited about and that’s ‘Captain Underpants’, of course that is quite a bit in the future not set to come out until 2017. What order all of his projects will come out is anyone’s guess.
While I like Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds, Ride Along may not have done as well with that cast. Not too many actors can drive people to the theaters and at least for now, Kevin Hart is one of the few actors that can do this. The movie is successful b/c of the pairing and especially b/c of Kevin Hart. Dwayne Johnson is not know for comedy and The Change-Up starring Ryan Reynolds didn’t do as well. Where as Ice Cube as oppose to Dwayne has starred or appeared in many successful comedies such as Are We There Yet, Barbershop, Friday, 21 Jump Street. And Kevin Hart has been on a roll.
I agree that Dwayne Johnson and Reynolds would have been an odd pair, but I think they could have played off each other in a really great way. Like you said they aren’t exactly straight comedy actors and Reynolds jump with ‘Green Lantern’ didn’t meet commercial success. I just really want to see some originality back with movies. I hated that the second they saw this was successful they want to give us another dose of the same.