Comedian and actor Kevin Hart will reportedly star in the upcoming film inspired by Hughes’ celebrated comedy that cast John Candy as a Chicago man trying to enjoy a camping trip with his family, only to have his brother-in-law hilariously ruin the experience at every turn.
According to Deadline, Universal Pictures’ remake of The Great Outdoors is based on a script penned by Randall Green, whose recent work includes two scripts featured in the 2014 edition of the Black List — the annual list of the best un-produced screenplays circulating around studios. He also provided the script for the upcoming reboot of the Scooby-Doo franchise for Warner Bros. Pictures and currently writes for the Showtime series Billions.
Hughes’ original film paired Candy with Dan Aykroyd, who played the obnoxious brother-in-law of Candy’s character.
Hart has been enjoying a good run of features lately and had roles in four successful films in 2016. Along with the live-action comedies Ride Along 2 and Central Intelligence — which brought in more than $330 million worldwide collectively — he also starred in his third stand-up comedy special, Kevin Hart: What Now? The special, which was screen theatrically, earned $23 million in U.S. theaters.
Hart also had a prominent voice-acting role in the wildly successful animated feature The Secret Life of Pets, which grossed more than $875 million worldwide. He will appear along Dwayne Johnson later this year in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
There is no word on how the remake of The Great Outdoors might update the film’s story, who the director might be for the film, or when it is expected to hit theaters, but having Hart onboard the project will likely speed things along in the development process.
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