Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, stars of the upcoming cop-buddy comedy "Ride Along," and producer Will Packer have spent time in Atlanta this week promoting their locally made movie with a marketing schedule that would impress Ron Burgundy.
Following a Monday night red carpet screening of the movie, the three hopped aboard a bus and ferried members of the Atlanta media around to point out various locations where the movie filmed scenes. The tour left from and returned to Sublime Doughnuts in Midtown, where they were joined by fans for specialty "Kevin Hart Chocolate Drop" doughnuts and "Iced Cube" coffee. The creative blitz brought to mind Will Ferrell's energetic in-character hyping of "Anchorman 2," another Atlanta-made flick.
In "Ride Along," coming out Jan. 17, Cube and Hart star as a mismatched pair thrown together by romance. The rapper-actor plays James, a hardboiled cop with little use for Hart's character Ben, a video-game-loving twerp. Ben has designs on James' lovely sister, played by Tika Sumpter, but must secure James' blessing before he can propose. James decides to take the pipsqueak out with him on a ride along to let Ben prove his mettle. Hilarity ensues.
“It was a fun environment while we worked,” said Hart, who revealed the prank he pulled on Packer during filming.
“One day, I’m headed to work, I’m in my SUV, and I notice Will’s car pulls up next to me but he doesn’t see that I’m in the other car,” Hart said, chuckling at the memory. “I told my friend, at the next light, I’m going to jump out and aggressively open Will’s car door and see what Will does. All he did was grab his heart.”
“Fred G. Sanford-style!” Cube added.
The guys had a big time cracking on each other and cracking each other up as they noted filming locations including Underground Atlanta, Grady High School and the Philips Arena/Georgia Dome area.
"We were going for Chris Tucker, Mike Epps, LeVar Burton — we had to settle for Kevin Hart," Cube quipped.
Packer briefly struck a serious tone in discussing Atlanta’s growing filming community.
“This is home for me. It’s a great market. It’s got a great Southern flair and a Southern sensibility, but it’s metropolitan at the same time, so it’s got a lot of great looks,” Packer said. “Obviously the Georgia tax incentives make it very attractive for producers all over the world to come shoot in Atlanta. For me, this being my backyard, whenever I have an opportunity to bring projects to ‘The A,’ I do.”
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