Sony loves Kevin James, at least as long as people are willing to pay their hard earned money to watch him do silly things or fall over. The studio is already pleased with the bank he helped pull in for both “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Grown Ups,” and with their decision to bump “The Zookeeper” from this fall to next summer due to the overwhelming response at test screenings, it seems Sony are eager to stay in the Kevin James business.
So with that in mind, Sony has closed a deal for an untitled martial arts comedy for James to star in. We’re kind of being dicks by comparing it to “Beverly Hills Ninja” but we’re sure it will be just as terrible. Written by Allan Loeb (“The Switch,” “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”) the film finds James playing “a physics teacher whose school faces drastic cutbacks. In an attempt to save his best friend’s job and the music program his students love, he moonlights in the octagon as a mixed martial arts fighter, ultimately leading to brawling in the UFC.” And yes, it’s been fast-tracked.
This writer just returned home from TIFF and was still briefly floating in the cloud of festival programming, but thanks to this news has come crashing back to reality. Production will get underway next year.