Dwayne Johnson has agreed to star in a new “Lethal Weapon-inspired” action buddy comedy with New Line. The project was a hot commodity in Hollywood, with three studios fighting over the rights to the film, which hopes to become a franchise for one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood.
Johnson is also producing the untitled action comedy, which is said to be in the vein of Lethal Weapon, 48 Hrs. and Midnight Run, per the report at Deadline:
They are keeping the logline under wraps, but I’m told it’s something of a throwback to those mismatched buddy action comedies likeLethal Weapon, Midnight Run and 48 Hours. This will follow a fast track and they have high hopes it will launch a new franchise built around a guy who is only half-jokingly referred as franchise Viagra for the way he has helped reinvigorate film franchises like The Fast And The Furious.
One thing I hope New Line, Dwayne Johnson, and everyone involved remembers about this films they reference with this new project: they weren’t just comedies. Lethal Weapon certainly became a cartoon over four films, but the original had much more going for it (which I wrote about yesterday). Here’s hoping this new project has an actual edge to the comedy, and doesn’t star Kevin Hart.
