When Kevin Hart first approached producer Will Packer about Night School the uber producer wasn’t in the mood to hear the pitch.
Mainly because the pair were partying hard to celebrate the release of “Ride Along.”
“We had just finished promoting ‘Ride Along’ in London and Kevin Hart came up to me at an after party,” Packer recently recalled to me over the phone.
“We were all kicking it, having fun, Kevin comes up to me and says he has an idea. I don’t want to talk any business at that time. I was tired. I was partying. But Kevin was the star of the movie, so I had to hear him out.”
4 years later, on the eve of “Night School” actually being released, Packer is clearly quite relieved to have listened.
“He kicks the idea, the very original geneses for ‘Night School.’ I didn’t expect to like it. But I did. I said, ‘So tell me more. What would they do? How did they get to Night School? What are the characters like?’”
But Hart didn’t have more. In fact, for the time being, his work on “Night School” was done.
“He was like, ‘Nah, nah, nah. That’s all I got.’ Then he left me to go dancing on the dance floor.’
Packer was already hooked on the idea, though.
“It was the concept of a group of underdogs who need a second chance in life. I really thought that was a very relatable concept that a lot of people would get behind. I really did.”
“So far me that’s what it was. I saw that this would be an underdog group of misfits needing a second chance, we could put together a great ensemble cast.”
“Over the next 3 or 4 years we started developing this thing, working on a script, getting it to a place where we got a director.”
“I had just finished working with Malcolm Lee on ‘Girls Trip.’ He was my guy. I showed Kevin an early screener of ‘Girls Trip’.”
“He said, ‘Oh my God. I have to get Malcolm and I have to get Tiffany Haddish. Let’s go.’ And here we are.”
Hart was so impressed with Haddish’s breakout performance in ‘Girls Trip’ that he never wavered once from her being his co-star.
“It was Tiffany. It was definitely Tiffany. Before ‘Girls Trip’ was released Kevin could see that Tiffany was going to pop. It was always her. I love that this is a different role for her.”
“Because in this she is an authority figure. In ‘Girls Trip’ she is the livewire off the hinges crazy girl. But in this, she still has an edge and is fun, but she is definitely the authority figure.”
It also helped that Hart and Haddish had been friends for several years, too, but what elements of that friendship did Packer want to tap into with “Night School”?
“The fact they respect each other. They’re very competitive. So make no mistake, the definitely give as good as they get.”
“They are 2 people that want to be the funniest. But they allowed each other to shine. They’re competitive, but they let each other have the spotlight when it was time. They’re like brother and sister.”
You can see what Hart and Haddish bring to “Night School” now, as it has just been released into cinemas.
