EXCLUSIVE: We can tell you first that Lionsgate has acquired Ride or Die, a romantic buddy action-comedy with Marlon Wayans and Keke Palmer attached to star.
The feature project centers on robbery detective Martin Banks (Wayans), a consummate professional, and narcotics detective and unapologetic butt-kicker Tami Moore (Palmer). Sparks and bullets fly when these opposites are partnered to track down a billion-dollar cache of deadly opioids stolen from the vault of a multinational pharmaceutical company that threaten to flood the streets of Chicago.
Lionsgate
Wayans describes the film, which is being billed as the first romantic buddy-cop action comedy, as When Harry Met Sally with guns.
Wayans wrote the screenplay with Rick Alvarez. Pic will be produced by Wayans and Alvarez through their company, Ugly Baby and by Neal H. Moritz and Toby Ascher, through Moritz’s Original Film. Keke Palmer and her mother, Sharon Palmer, are also in talks to EP.
Scott O’Brien is overseeing the project for Lionsgate. Robert Melnik negotiated the deals for the studio.
Wayans most recently starred in Him, produced by Jordan Peele, and upcoming, stars alongside his fellow original castmates in the highly anticipated Scary Movie, which he also wrote and produced along with Rick Alvarez. The actor is repped by 3 Arts, UTA, and Yorn, Levine. Alvarez is repped by 3 Arts, UTA, and Yorn, Levine.
Palmer’s latest movie, I Love Boosters, just made its world premiere at SXSW. That Boots Riley-directed comedy comes out over Memorial Day weekend. Palmer stars in Peacock’s comedy series The Burbs. Palmer was recently honored as the NAACP’s Entertainer of the Year. Coming out is MGM’s Spaceballs 2. She starred in One of Them Days, Nope from Jordan Peele, Good Fortune directed by Aziz Ansari, and Amazon’s The Pickup, alongside Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson. She is a 2023 Emmy winner for NBC’s Password with Jimmy Fallon and hosts the award-winning podcast Baby, This Is Keke Palmer for Wondery. Palmer is represented by 3 Arts and Hertz Lichtenstein Young & Polk, LLP.
Original Film is now in production on Highlander with director Chad Stahelski, and on Sonic the Hedgehog 4. The company also has the feature Beach Read for 20th Century, and a live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Paramount. In television, season five of The Boys will premiere next week, and the company is in post-production on the spinoff show S.W.A.T. Exiles, with God of the Woods set to start this summer for Netflix.