The original film doesn’t hit our shores until the end of this month, but given its big box office success in the US and the current drawing power of star Kevin Hart, it’s perhaps less than surprising that Universal wants to capitalise on cop comedy Ride Along by officially kicking off work on a sequel.
Though the reviews were mixed, that’s not stopping many of those involved in the first film reuniting, with director Tim Story and two of the four writers, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, all signed to deals alongside producers Ice Cube and Will Packer.
In front of the camera, Cube and Hart (or their representatives, at least) are hammering out the final details of contracts to return for a second round of growling and gurning.
The first Ride Along found Hart as jumpy security guard Ben Barber, who is angling to marry his girlfriend Angela (Tika Sumpter). To prove he’s worthy of her hand, he joins the police academy, only to be swept off on a ride along with her tough-as-old-boots cop brother James Payton (Cube). Cue lots of misunderstandings, pranks and run-ins with violent criminals as these distinctly mismatched buddy cops learn something about each other while taking down the bad guys.
Story is scheduled to start cranking the cameras on the sequel in July, with Deadline hearing that the new film will ramp up the action quotient and reaching out to a wider audiences to ensure that the money truck keeps on rolling. If it succeeds, expect a Ride Along every year for the next decade, and presumably a reboot a couple of years after the last one hit screens. The first, meanwhile, will be with us on February 28.