Starring Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes, Netflix has announced the release date for the upcoming limited drama series True Story that will premiere on November 24th, 2021.
Hart plays the fictional version of himself, Kid, in the film who stops at his home town in Philadelphia and soon finds himself caught at the crossroads of life between life and death when his older brother, cunning and vile, played by Snipes, threatens to destroy Kid completely.
Hart has described it as a “thriller; it’s like you’ve never seen me before. It’s a little artistic play.”
Hart serves as the executive producer on this series which also marks his series debut. He is joined by the Narcos and Narcos: Mexico showrunner Eric Newman, who also serves as executive producer.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Newman recounted how Hart “called me out of the blue, I didn’t know him, and his pitch was simply, ‘I want to kill someone”.
He added, “He was calling the project, ‘Crazy Kevin.’ But I wasn’t at all drawn to the idea of Kevin as, like, Dexter or Barry.”
About Hart, Newman could not help but shower praises on the comedian. “As I did some research on Kevin, I was struck by how ambitious he is, how vast his empire is, and it dovetails slightly with the theory that I’ve been cultivating for a long time, which is the common sociopathy in really successful people: I believe a lot of them are capable of killing somebody. And I certainly thought Kid as a character would kill to protect what he had built.”
Gushing over the project, he said, “I’m really blown away, and yet, also not surprised that Kevin is as good as he is. My hope is that people are going to say, ‘Wow, who would have thought?’”
Talking about his role, Hart said that the role saw him stepping out of his comfort zone and taking up a challenge that he was completely alien to. “My road to this type of role has been a long one, and I wanted to make sure that it was something that I could do and have my fan base really believe in, respect, and say, ‘We’ve actually witnessed him work his way to get here.’”
Hart spoke about his previous projects fondly while bringing out the stark difference in his roles. “Doing The Upside was strategic, doing Fatherhood was strategic, and now doing True Story is strategic. This is about me finding new excitement in my craft, in my talent, and putting it on display.”
He spoke of how “surreal” it was to work with his hero Snipes. “I grew up watching Wesley and emulating Wesley, and the fact that now that’s my guy, my brother, my friend, my costar — it’s everything, plus more.”
