Director Tim Story says his new film ‘Ride Along’ is a comedic take on ‘Training Day’
theGRIO REPORT - Director Tim Story talks about his new film, 'Ride Along,' starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart. Story says his new film is a comedic take on the gritty crime drama 'Training Day'....
Director Tim Story and producer Will Packer have teamed up again after their wildly successful hit Think Like A Man, for the buddy-cop comedy Ride Along.
The film, starring Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, John Leguizamo, and Tika Sumpter, centers around a fast-talking security guard (Hart), who joins his cop brother-in-law James (Ice Cube), for a 24-hour patrol of Atlanta in order to prove himself worthy of marrying the love of his life, Angela (Sumpter).
During a visit on the set of Ride Along in Atlanta last December, theGrio’s Chris Witherspoon caught up with Story and talked about the similarities of his new film and Antoine Fuqua’s gritty crime drama Training Day.
“We tried to shoot the movie not like a comedy,” Story said. “We wanted to make sure the stakes and the look were dramatic to make it look real as opposed to a colorful comedy.”
“Inside of it we knew we would have [Cube and Hart], doing what they do best. So when it comes to Training Day, I looked at a lot of it. There is so much that I took from that movie… from the look, to moments that I know made that movie work. It was such a great movie, that I have taken quite a bit from it, and kinda done my own spin on it.”
Story confessed that he definitely feels pressure for his latest film to generate the same level of success he and Packer achieved with Think Like a Man, which took Hollywood by storm in 2012.
“Yes, there is pressure,” he said. “We are trying to do great things. The pressure that exists is the one that we put on ourselves.”
“We believe that what we are doing is funny to us and in turn [we have] worked out what we find funny, and what we find good, inevitably found an audience. All we try to do is be true to what we believe. If it makes us laugh and feel good in the cutting room we’re going to go with our instincts.”
Story also opened up about the obstacle of directing Hart, who kept the cast and crew laughing between takes.
“You don’t give Kevin orders,” said Story. “You just kinda keep him in bounds. Kevin is an amazing collaborator. You’d be really surprised at how professional he is. Although he gives you all these off-the-cuff ad-libs… it’s very structured. What makes him a true talent is that he’s able to make the structured look natural and unrehearsed.
Ride Along hits theaters nationwide January 17,2014.
Follow theGrio.com’s Entertainment Editor Chris Witherspoon on Twitter @WitherspoonC
