Over the course of his burgeoning career, director Patrick Hughes has specialized in making films about violent personalities teaming up — willingly or not — to protect their identities or fight against even more imposing figures. With The Expendables 3 and The Hitman's Bodyguard films in particular, including last year's The Hitman's Bodyguard's Wife, Hughes has spent the last decade focusing on films about unstable people using their wits and life-ending skills to protect themselves or maybe even other people in irreverent and often indelicate ways. And that tradition is set to continue with Netflix's The Man From Toronto, another mismatched frenemies action-comedy in the vein of Hughes' last two movies that finds Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson mistaken for being the same assassin — to vicious, hilarious results. Now, we have our first official look at the new action blockbuster courtesy of the streaming movie's trailer.
As this promo shows, Hart plays a fumbling sales consultant who winds up being mistaken for the world's most deadly assassin — a killer known simply as "The Man from Toronto." Forced to assume the identity of this very lethal killing machine, it doesn't take long before Hart finds himself in the company of the real Man from Toronto, played by Harrelson, and the two unlikely personalities wind up in a very violent and (one hopes) very funny turn of events together. Certainly, as we saw with Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds' playful pairing in The Hitman's Bodyguard movies, Hughes enjoys putting two stars together to see if the sparks will fly, and it's easy to imagine the oddball antics that will ensue between Harrelson and Hart even before we got our first official glimpse at this Sony-turned-Netflix-distributed action romp.
Harrelson has proven himself more than adept at balancing comedy, drama, and action with charismatic ease, and Hart is no stranger to bouncing between comedy and action beats with straight-laced co-stars, with his leading roles in the Ride Along movies, the Jumanji sequels, Central Intelligence, and Quibi's star-studded short-form series, Die Hart, which was renewed for a second season through Roku. In that respect, The Man from Toronto will have no problem fitting into either actor's filmography, and it won't be long before viewers can check this movie out for themselves — from the comfort of their homes, no less.
'The Man From Toronto' Images Reveal Kevin Hart And Woody Harrelson In Action Comedy
Though The Man from Toronto was originally scheduled for a theatrical rollout on August 12th, courtesy of Sony, the action-comedy was sold to Netflix earlier this year, resulting in its earlier release date. This is becoming a not-uncommon trend for the studio; they also previously sold animated family flicks like The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Vivo, and Wish Dragon to the streaming service, while also forging a new deal with the company last year that will see several of their newest movies hitting the site shortly after their theatrical runs. Hopefully, with that in mind, the Netflix acquisition shouldn't be seen as a worrying lack of confidence in this new project, though we don't have long to wait to judge the film for ourselves.
Also starring Kaley Cuoco and Ellen Barkin, The Man from Toronto will premiere exclusively on Netflix on June 24th. In the meantime, be sure to check out the movie's official trailer below!