Over the summer, Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista started joking about a Lethal Weapon-style buddy cop movie that initially began as a tweet from Bautista before Momoa picked up the ball and ran with it during an appearance on The Late Late Show. Of course, you can’t toss out an idea like that without turning a few heads, and that’s exactly what happened as barely a week later, things started moving to get the film off the ground and shooting in Momoa’s home state of Hawaii. (The Aquaman star sweetened the deal by telling James Corden that Bautista will wear a Speedo and Momoa will bust out his trademark board shorts.)
Jump to this week, where the future buddy cop team are now wrapping up a four-studio bidding war, which reportedly saw MGM walk away with the winning bid for the untitled film. Via Deadline:
The duo pitched it all over town this week, with Jonathan Tropper writing. The connection between the writer and stars comes from See, the Apple TV+ drama series that stars the duo. Tropper also scripted the upcoming Shawn Levy-directed The Adam Project with Ryan Reynolds. The film came from an original idea from Momoa, Bautista and Tropper. The studio will develop it, but the principals have made rich deals that kick in when the picture goes into production.
While there’s no director attached yet, Momoa and Bautista are hoping to start filming in 2023 after they finish up production on Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3. respectively. Also, after a global pandemic, we all need this win sooner rather than later. Momoa and Bautista stopping crime on the beach with huge Lethal Weapon vibes? Pour it in our veins.
(Via Deadline)