Jason Statham Leaves 'The Man From Toronto' Weeks Before Production Begins

Jason Statham has created a bit of trouble for the upcoming Sony Pictures action comedy The Man from Toronto. Four weeks before production was slated to begin (or six weeks depending on who you talk to), The Transporter star has dropped out of the project that would have seen him starring alongside Kevin Hart. Deadline has news on Jason Statham leaving The Man from Toronto. Apparently, the actor left due to creative differences with the studio. While Statham was hoping to make this an R-rated action comedy, Sony Pictures wanted a PG-13 project that would have given them a more box office friendly title heading into Thanksgiving weekend with a November 20, 2020 release date.

Statham must have felt pretty passionately about these creative differences, because Deadline says it looks like he didn't reach the point where his pay or play deal would have been activated, which would have given him a paycheck even if he didn't star in the movie. Furthermore, shortly after Statham left the project, the actor also parted ways with WME agency. Perhaps his agents didn't do enough to get him what he wanted on The Man from Toronto and he chose to leave everyone out in the wind.

Now the action comedy from director Patrick Hughes (The Hitman's Bodyguard, The Expendables 3) and writer Robbie Fox (So I Married an Axe Murder) is left to find a new co-star for The Last Man in Toronto, which just so happens to be the title role. The project follows the titular assassin, one of the best in the world, who is forced to team up with a screw-up named Teddy in New York when they are mistaken for each other in an Airbnb. They're forced to team up for some reason and stop some kind of nefarious plot, but obviously they don't get along very well and hilarity ensues.

This sounds like your standard two-hander, and not remarkably different from something like Central Intelligence, which Kevin Hart starred in with Dwayne Johnson. What other action stars could Kevin Hart team up with for maximum laughs? Many of the bigger action stars are busy right now on other projects, but apparently Sony is already out to an unnamed star to replace Jason Statham to keep the film on track. We'll let you know once the studio figures everything out.