The first images for Get Hard have been released, and they show Will Ferrell in a fabulously garish get-up that really only he can pull-off. The film will see the Anchorman lead star alongside Kevin Hart, and it will be exciting to see the two comedy heavyweights sparing with each other.
Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart have been discussing their upcoming effort with USA Today and the it turns out that the pair have spent years looking for a project that was right for the two of them to make together. In Get Hard, Ferrell will play James King, a man who is on the eve of going to prison for embezzling millions of dollars - though he didn't actually do it. Before he begins his incarceration, however, King mistakes Kevin Hart’s Darnell as a criminal, and hires him to help prepare for his future years in prison.
Speaking about his original interest in the comedy, Will Ferrell admitted that he found himself amused by the thought of his first day inside a maximum-security prison. He started to ask himself how he would prepare for such a scenario, and he concluded that it would be the perfect recipe for comedy.
"It's that thought everyone has had. What if, in some unforeseen circumstance, you were mistakenly sentenced to prison? What would you do? You would either try to flee or you would try to prepare yourself for every single scenario. That's where comedy comes from."
Discussing the error of his character’s ways, Will Ferrell added that he is only able to get away with mistaking Darnell, who works as his car washer, for an experienced criminal because he immediately offers him a truckload of money to do so.
"I wrongly assume he has a criminal record. And before he punches me in the face for that, I offer him too much money to say no. Darnell is pretending to be a thug so he can help his family to a better life. That’s the leaping-off point."
So how does Darnell actually train James King for prison? He first surprises the white-collar criminal with a pepper spray assault, and follows that up by acting out several different prison scenarios inside King’s tennis court - which has been turned into a "yard." Unfortunately, King fails miserably in these tests. So Darnell then tries to get King to pair up with a Los Angeles street gang that will offer him protection on the inside. This is what ultimately provokes Will Ferrell to wear the ridiculous outfit featured in the image up top.
Get Hard will be released on March 27, 2015, and while there’s no denying the fact that both Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart are capable of producing laughs in any film, I can’t help but be worried that the two of them together could capsize the comedy. Hopefully I’ll be proven wrong and the duo will ultimately bounce off of each other with aplomb in screenwriter Etan Cohen’s directorial debut.
