Kevin Hart to Play LeBron James’ Brother in Basketball Movie ‘Ballers’
Universal Studios and Imagine are currently in pre-production for the upcoming Lebron James and Kevin Hart movie, ‘Ballers’.
Universal and Imagine plan to start production and filming this summer following the NBA playoffs.
The Lebron James feature film debut project is heating up, as comedian Kevin Hart will join the NBA champion in the Universal pictures.
Kevin Hart may appear small next to the NBA champion, but with the hit comedy “Think Like a Man” and the upcoming “Ride Along” it is shaping up for a long term future with Kevin Hart and Hollywood.
“Ballers” will find Hart playing LeBron’s brother, who gets a chance to emerge from James’ towering shadow when he attends a fantasy basketball camp in Miami.
Brian Grazer and Michael Rosenberg will produce “Ballers” for Imagine, which was forced to put the project on the back burner in 2011 after James’ Miami Heat lost in the NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks. James would’ve come under fire if he spent the summer shooting a movie rather than working on his game. Now that he has two championship rings, naysayers will have a hard time questioning his summer vacation plans.
Hart and James will executive produce with Maverick Carter and Imagine’s Kim Roth.
Production is scheduled to start in the summer of 2014. In the meantime, Hart will co-write the comedy with his frequent collaborators Joey Wells, Chris Spencer and Harry Ratchford. Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel were the original writers on the project along with Peter Steinfeld.
Although Lebron James has an amazing jumpshot and superb dunking abilities, it will remain to be seen if he can crossover and jump into acting the same way Michael Jordan was able to do in “Space Jam”.
Hart next stars opposite Ice Cube in Universal’s “Ride Along,” and he’ll also be seen in Screen Gems’ remake of “About Last Night” and Chris Rock’s “Finally Famous.” He’s repped by UTA and 3 Arts Entertainment.
