Kevin Hart seems like the sort of actor who could handle the Herculean (some might say impossible) workload of Santa Claus. Heck, the dude would probably have three afterparties and film a buddy comedy about alien dogcatchers with The Rock while dropping (or chocolate droppa-ing, if you prefer) presents worldwide. Naturally, Disney has sorted it out that the perpetually busy comedian would make a worthy St. Nick.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hart is in talks to play Santa in the upcoming motion picture Dashing Through The Snow. The film focuses on a workaholic NYC detective who enlists Santa to track down the execution style murder of several reindeer repair his relationship with his son. There’s also some variety of Christmas magic involved. (THR points to Liar Liar and Elf as the “tonal analogues” for the movie.) The project is billed as a family comedy so Hart’s Kringle would presumably trim out some of the naughty words in vocabulary, although we’re game either way.
No director has been locked down for Dashing Through the Snow at this point. Having Hart make the leap from negotiations to officially leaping aboard the project presumably would trim down the wait. For what it’s worth, we have a perverse interest in seeing Martin Short’s maniacally campy Jack Frost from the Santa Clause 3 pop up, so please consider that option Hollywood power players.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly)
