With** Paul Blart: Mall Cop** and **Grown Ups **both turning into big successes for Sony, the studio is naturally rather anxious to stay in the Kevin James business. And now, with animal comedy The Zookeeper being groomed for release next summer, the actor has just spilled ink on a deal to star in an untitled martial arts comedythat will shoot next year.
As we try to banish the image of **Beverly Hills Ninja **(or Tracy Jordan’s fake flick Who Dat Ninja? from 30 Rock), Deadline reports the new movie’s basic plot: James will play a physics teacher whose school is having to institute drastic cuts (it’s American, so we can’t blame David Cameron for this one). In a heroic attempt to keep his best pal from getting fired and save the school’s music program, he starts leading a second life as a mixed martial arts fighter, which eventually leads to him scrapping in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
We’re not sure if they’ll have the actor get in shape a la Seth Rogen’s Green Hornet form for the film, or whether Sony is planning to go the Paul Blar****t route again and have a tubby hero who still manages to hold his own. Either way, Allan Loeb, the writer behind 21, The Switch and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (one of these things is not like the others), is the man responsible for finding the funny among the fisticuffs.
Your ideas for titles are welcome. We'll start you off: Fight Schlub? School Punches?