Jason Statham decided to pull out of a Kevin Hart comedy-action film weeks before the cameras were set to begin rolling. According to Deadline, The 52-year-old English actor was set to star in a movie entitled The Man From Toronto but decided to decline on participating in the venture just four weeks prior to the start of production. Statham is coming off the box office blockbuster success of The Fast & The Furious Present: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) and was recently spotted alongside Post Malone shooting the upcoming film, Cash Truck. Now, the famed action film star has backed out of a commitment with Sony Pictures that could have been yet another box office smash.
Famed director, Patrick Hughes, who's responsible for movies like The Expendables 3 and The Hitman's Bodyguard now has to produce another notable action film star to replace Statham which will most likely result in the movie's production being pushed back and cost Sony Pictures millions of investment dollars.
In The Man From Toronto, Statham was set to play the world's deadliest assassin who accidentally pursued Kevin Hart's character described as "New York's biggest screw up" after an AirBNB mixup. Evidently the odd couple would eventually end up pairing up in the flick as the film's duo of protagonists. Unfortunately, the Death Race actor had some creative differences with the studio, wanting the movie to be rated R while it was set for a more family-friendly rating at PG-13.
With Kevin Hart coming off of the success of his Netflix docuseries, Don't F*ck This Up (2020), and remaining to be one of Hollywood's hardest working personalities, Sony Pictures is sure to find a willing replacement for Jason Statham to star alongside the Jumanji actor.
Check out Jason Statham's legendary #BottleCapChallenge in the Instagram video provided below.