Harold and Kumar are going to get some burgers and buzz one more time.
Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald, the creators behind worldwide Netflix sensation Cobra Kai, have closed a deal to write a new installment of Harold & Kumar, the buddy stoner comedy movie series that was popular in the early 2000s.
Hurwitz and Schlossberg will also direct the feature, which is being developed at Lionsgate-owned Mandate Pictures. It is a full circle moment for the gentlemen as their Hollywood career got high thanks to writing the original movie, 2004’s Harold & Kumar go to White Castle, and making their directorial debut with 2008’s Harold & Kumar Escape Guantanamo Bay.
John Cho and Kal Penn, who played the title characters, are expected to return, although no deals have been made with the actors. Neil Patrick Harris was also a key component to the cast, and his involvement is unclear.
Hurwitz, Schlossberg and Heald will produce via their Counterbalance Entertainment banner, alongside Greg Shapiro, who produced the original movies and later went on to win an Oscar for best picture thanks to his work on war drama The Hurt Locker. Mandate, who also produced the original trio, will also produce. The feature will be one of the first projects produced by Nathan Kahane, Lionsgate’s current motion picture group president who is stepping down at year’s end and returning to Mandate to be a producer.
Dina Hillier will executive produce for Counterbalance.
The original Harold & Kumar, directed by Danny Leiner, followed to two young men, Korean American Harold Lee and Indian American Kumar Patel, who embark on a road trip to the Northeast burger joint named White Castle to satiate their munchies after they smoke some weed. But with the nearest White Castle miles away, they find themselves on a series of increasingly bizarre adventures, including getting arrested by racist cops, getting high with a cheetah, and picking up a hitchhiker who turns out to be famous TV actor Neil Patrick Harris, high on ecstasy.
White Castle proved to have a potent strain as it mixed stoner and sex comedy elements with the inversion of stereotypes, timely social and political issues, and platforming actors who would not normally find themselves as headliners. The movie had a profitable theatrical run and become a cult hit on home entertainment. Guantanamo and 2011’s A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, followed. The trio of films was made by Warner Bros. division New Line Cinema.
“We’re fired up to bring Harold and Kumar back in a return to the unapologetically R-rated, smoke-filled chaos that started it all,” Hurwitz and Schlossberg said jointly in a statement. “It’s high time they puff and pass their wisdom onto a new generation. Just don’t tell their kids.”
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Cho and Penn have both seen their careers ascend since the first movie. Cho would later go on to play Sulu in the Star Trek movie reboot and was nominated for an Indie Spirit for his performance in the 2018 thriller Searching. Penn appeared in the long-running medical mystery series House and later was a member of the Obama administration as an associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement.
Hurwitz and Schlossberg, meanwhile, went on a Hollywood ride almost as wild as Harold & Kumar. The success of those movies made them in demand for comedies, and they wrote and directed the 2012 American Pie movie American Reunion and produced the 2018 comedy Blockers.
But it became an era of high times with high kicks after they teamed up with Heald to create, showrun and executive produce Cobra Kai, a series that served as a sequel to the classic Karate Kid movies. The show proved a generational hit, blending old characters with a new talent, blending comedy and drama and heart and action, and became one of Netflix’s biggest successes around the world. It also proved to be a hit with critics and peers, with the third season earning an Emmy nomination for outstanding comedy series. The show wrapped its sixth and final season earlier this year on Netflix, allowing the power trio to find their next fix.
Hurwitz, Schlossberg, and Heald, as well as Counterbalance, are repped by CAA and Hansen Jacobson.
