Kevin Hart Plans 'Extreme Job' Comedy Remake at Universal

Tracy Oliver, who wrote 'Girls Trip' and 'Little,' is on board to pen the script for the remake of the Korean hit.


Kevin Hart and CJ Entertainment have banded together to remake the Korean crime comedy Extreme Job.


Tracy Oliver, who penned Girls Trip and Little, will write the screenplay for the project, which just landed at Universal Pictures.


Hart is eyeing the project as a starring vehicle and will produce via his HartBeat production banner. CJ Entertainment, which produced the original, will also produce, with CJ’s head of U.S. productions Francis Chung producing. Oliver will also be a producer.


Extreme Job, now the biggest-grossing movie in Korean box office history following its release in January, centers on a team of narcotics detectives that goes undercover in a fried chicken joint to stake out an organized crime gang. Things take an unexpected turn, however, when the detectives’ chicken recipe suddenly transforms the rundown restaurant into the hottest eatery in town.


Fred Lee, CJ Entertainment’s Los Angeles-based director of development, and Ini Chung, CJ’s Seoul-based director of development, are co-producing and will oversee the project with HartBeat’s Carli Haney.


Hart, CJ and Universal are already collaborating on the female-driven dramedy Bye, Bye, Bye, a remake of CJ’s 2011 hit Sunny.


Hart’s The Upside, a remake of the French movie The Intouchables, grossed over $108 million following its release in January by STX. The actor voices a character in Universal’s Secret Life of Pets 2 and is shooting the sequel to Jumanji.


Oliver next has The Sun Is Also a Star, the adaptation of Nicola Yoon’s YA novel for which she penned the screenplay, set to open May 17.


Hart is repped by UTA, 3 Arts Entertainment and Schreck Rose. Oliver is repped by ICM Partners, Artists First and Myman Greenspan.