Kevin Hart to Star in Reboot of The Great Outdoors

The Great Outdoors appears to be the latest contemporary film project to excavate from the proverbial mine of hit 1980s films. Indeed, the original 1988 zany nature getaway comedy, which starred John Candy and Dan Aykroyd, is getting a major post-millennial makeover that will showcase today’s perennial buddy comedy star of the Ride Along franchise and other similar hit films in Kevin Hart.

According to Deadline, Kevin Hart has boarded Universal Pictures’ reboot film of The Great Outdoors, a project that will look to maintain the rustic rampages of the original film – scripted by the late, great John Hughes – with its fumbling foibles and comedic interpersonal conflicts between bumbling family patriarchs set in a nature getaway. The film’s would-be star Kevin Hart is also onboard in the capacity of a producer through his Hartbeat Productions company, joined by Michael De Luca is producing of Michael De Luca Productions.

The original The Great Outdoors depicted a Chicago family man (Candy) attempting to enjoy a peaceful nature-filled summer vacation with his family at a Wisconsin lake resort, only to be abruptly joined by his capricious banker brother-in-law (Aykroyd) and his family. Embarrassingly awkward activities, failed teen romances and a run-in with the resort’s mythical ursine denizen the Bald-Headed Bear are all the raucous results of this folly-filled endeavor. For now, though, the reboot’s equally crucial component of Hart’s would-be co-star and comedic foil has yet to be cast.

The Great Outdoors reboot film is also currently lacking a director to fill the shoes of original helmer Howard Deutsch, a current mainstay of a variety of peak television shows who made his feature directorial debut with a trio of John Hughes-penned pictures in 1986’s Pretty in Pink, 1987’s Some Kind of Wonderful, capped off with 1988’s The Great Outdoors. However, what the Great Outdoors reboot does have right now is a writer in Randall Green, a newcomer with a few projects in the pipeline such as a live-action Scooby-Doo reboot, The Swimsuit Issue and Cartoon Girl. Green will face the tremendous task of doing John Hughes’s script justice.

The Great Outdoors reboot has quite a bit of legwork to accomplish – notably nabbing a director and co-headliner – before it starts declaring any significant dates. In the meantime, those unfamiliar with the original classic 1988 film can check out the trailer below!