Ryan Reynolds and Channing Tatum's Action Comedy CALAMITY HUSTLE Acquired by Warner Bros.

Ryan Reynolds and Channing Tatum are both attached to star in an upcoming action comedy titled Calamity Hustle. This is a big project and Warner Bros. recently acquired the rights to the film that a lot of studios were trying to get a hold of.

The film is described as a "mismatched buddy actioner like Lethal Weapon,” and the hope is to launch a franchise. The story will be set around the holidays and “Reynolds will play a cop who is estranged from his low-level criminal brother (Tatum). They grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, and went in the opposite direction. When bro is implicated as part of a diamond heist, the cop must hunt him down before those he ripped off.”

The script for the film was written by Adam and Aaron Nee who previously worked on Tatum’s The Lost City. The Nee Brothers will also direct the film. The film will shoot in New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The movie will include big action set pieces and the budget for the film is said to be around $140 million.

I’m actually surprised that a studio managed to land the film, especially since, these days, most of these kinds of movies are being acquired by Netflix, Amazon, and Apple TV+.

Deadline reports: “It looked for days like this was going to be another pricey package gobbled by a streamer, but Warner Bros’ rallying might signal a change in these auctions. Streamers would pay higher than a traditional theatrical studio could, but the game is changing, and more filmmakers are demanding theatrical releases for films like Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon, before they land on streaming sites. A theatrical release with a P&A spend if anything establishes these movies in the pop culture, where many streaming-only films come and go with limited awareness because there’s no P&A. But streamers won’t want to pay the premiums for those films, preferring to share with the studio collecting the distribution fee.”

The Nee Brothers are also currently developing the live-action Masters of the Universe movie at Amazon, but Calamity Hustle will be their next film.

Source: Deadline