Woody Harrelson is set to replace Jason Statham in Sony’s “The Man From Toronto,” joining Kevin Hart in the action-comedy, sources confirmed to Variety.
Statham was in talks to star opposite Hart, but abruptly backed out a week ago over creative differences, and Sony scrambled to find a new actor. Sony’s pairing with Harrelson makes sense, due to the actor’s long-standing relationship with the studio. Harrelson is not only the star of Sony’s “Zombieland” series, with the sequel bowing last October, but also recently wrapped his role as the villain Carnage in “Venom 2” opposite Tom Hardy.
The film revolves around a case of a mistaken identity after the world’s deadliest assassin, known as the “Man from Toronto,” and a stranger, played by Hart, run into each other at an Airbnb. Chaos soon follows as the assassin’s world comes crashing down on Hart’s.
Patrick Hughes, who directed the 2017 Ryan Reynolds-Samuel L. Jackson action-comedy “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” is on board to helm. Robbie Fox wrote the script from a story by Fox and Jason Blumenthal. Blumenthal is producing along with Todd Black and Steve Tisch, his partners at Escape Artists.
The movie is set to bow on Nov. 20.
Harrelson is coming off a busy 2019 that not only featured “Zombieland 2,” but also the Roland Emmerich World War II pic “Midway,” as well as the Netflix movie “The Highwaymen.” His 2020 looks to be just as packed, with Sony’s “Venom” sequel bowing in October, the Netflix action film “Kate” and Ruben Ostlund’s “Triangle of Sadness.” He is repped by CAA.