Kevin Hart has been part of a few legendary buddy comedy pairings over the years, starring alongside Will Ferrell, Ice Cube and, of course his best buddy Dwayne Johnson. Next up, the comedian is pairing up with Venom’s Woody Harrelson for a fun action flick called The Man From Toronto. In a shakeup for the movie, it will be coming to streaming instead of theaters this summer.
The Man From Toronto will reportedly become available exclusively to those with a Netflix subscription later this year, per Variety. The decision falls under a previous deal Sony and Netflix made one year ago in regards to the streaming service getting the rights to the studio’s films after an 18-month theatrical exclusivity window. Or, in The Man From Toronto’s case, a number of Sony films will instead skip their theatrical runs and go directly to Netflix, in lieu of the studio not having its own streaming service to call its own.
In the upcoming action comedy, Woody Harrelson will play the “world’s deadliest assassin,” while Kevin Hart’s character is described as “New York’s biggest screw up.” These two characters end up being confused for one another at an Airbnb rental, and hijinks ensue. Harrelson replaced Jason Statham back in 2020, with Statham abruptly leaving The Man from Toronto reportedly due to “creative differences,” especially in terms of the movie’s planned rating. Statham allegedly wanted The Man From Toronto to be R-rated, whereas the studio was opting for a PG-13 release for a Thanksgiving weekend slot. That never happened anyway thanks to COVID-19 delays.
Kevin Hart has been frequently seen on Netflix as of late in projects like last year’s touching family movie Fatherhood and the miniseries True Story. In late 2021, he boarded a Netflix action heist film called Lift, along with already having the comedy Me Time for the streaming service. Additionally, Hart will star in the upcoming DC animated movie DC League of Super-Pets, the Borderlands adaptation and the Monopoly movie, based on the game of the same name.
Woody Harrelson appeared in the 2021 Netflix action flick Kate alongside Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The actor also recently starred as the villain in the Venom sequel Let There Be Carnage recently, along with reprising his Zombieland role in the 2019 followup alongside Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone.
It'll be exciting to see Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson work next to each other on screen for the first time. The Man From Toronto was directed by Patrick Hughes, who has helmed both The Hitman’s Bodyguard movies starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson. He also was the director behind 2014’s The Expendables 3 starring Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford.
The previous release date for The Man From Toronto was August 12, but it’s currently unclear if the date will remain as it moves to Netflix’s 2022 movie schedule. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more about this upcoming action comedy.
