‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles’ Gets Paramount Pictures Remake With Will Smith & Kevin Hart Starring; Westbook, Hartbeat Produce

By Mike Flemming, Jr.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures has set a remake of the classic John Hughes 1987 road trip comedy Planes, Trains & Automobiles as a star vehicle for Will Smith and Kevin Hart. Hart’s Hartbeat Productions and Smith’s Westbrook Studios will produce. In her feature debut, Aeysha Carr will write the script. Her TV credits include Brooklyn 99 and the upcoming Hulu series Woke.

The original starred Steve Martin and John Candy as a mismatched duo forced to become bunkmates and traveling partners in a desperate attempt to get home to loved ones for Thanksgiving after their flights are canceled. A slew of holiday travel disasters follow, and they mix like water and oil. Hart and Smith produce with Westbrook Studios Co-President and Head of Motion Pictures Jon Mone and Hartbeat’s President of Film and Television Bryan Smiley.

The film seems like an ideal one for a new version from Paramount: it was very funny, but writer/director Hughes made it exceptionally touching considering the high concept road trip premise. He caught two superb physical comic actors at the peak of their powers.

Carr most recently executive produced the upcoming Hulu series Woke, which premieres in September starring New Girl’s Lamorne Morris and SNL‘s Sasheer Zamata. She wrote episodes and became a supervising producer on Brooklyn 99 and was a writer on Rel, The Carmichael Show, Mixology, Everybody Hates Chris, andMy Wife and Kids.

Carr is repped by ICM Partners, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Goodman, Genow; Hart is repped by UTA, 3 Arts and Schreck Rose; Smith is repped by CAA

This article originally appeared in Deadline on August 17, 2020.