STXfilms has bought the high concept comic superhero pitch Night Wolf from Detective Pikachu scribes Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit, a project that Kevin Hart will star in and produce via his HartBeat Productions.
Night Wolf follows a Meet the Parents-esque encounter where a man (Hart) meets his future father-in-law for the first time only to discover he is secretly the superhero known as the Night Wolf.
Hart starred in The Upside, the $100 million grossing hit which STX distributed back in January. Earlier this year, STX Entertainment announced it would partner with HartBeat Productions to produce two new comedy projects which Hart would topline. Night Wolf is the third project Hart is developing with the studio. STX previously announced Black Friday and an untitled romantic comedy. The HartBeat team will oversee production with STXfilms’ SVP of Production Drew Simon.
“After we acquired Night Wolf, we submitted it to Kevin Hart and the Team at HartBeat hoping they would love it as much as we did. It is a big, broad comedy and the idea is great fun and perfectly matched with Kevin’s comedic talent. We are thrilled to be working on what will now be our fourth film together,” said Chairman of STXfilms Adam Fogelson who made the announcement this morning.
“I am excited to be working with our friends at STX again. They brought us a great project with Night Wolf. I instantly fell in love with this pitch about an everyday guy who is meeting his in-laws for the first time and unwittingly discovers his dad to be is secretly a superhero,” said Hart.
STXfilms’ upcoming slate include Hustlers (September 13, the pic is also debuting at TIFF), Countdown (October 25), 21 Bridges (November 22), Playmobil (December 6), Brahms: The Boy II (December 6), My Spy (Jan 10), and Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen (Jan 24) among others.
In addition to The Upside, Hart also had Illumination/Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets 2 which has made close to $379M worldwide. He also has Sony’s Jumanji: The Next Level on Dec. 13.
Hernandez and Samit are represented by Oly Obst at 3 Arts Entertainment and Karl Austen and Michael Auerbach at Jackoway Austen Tyerman Werthheimer Mandlebaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein. Hart is represented by 3 Arts, UTA and Schreck Rose Dapello & Adams.
Source: Deadline
