Dave Bautista recently made his return to the WWE, beating the crap out of his former mentor, the legendary Ric Flair, and setting up a WrestleMania match with Triple H. Clearly, he’s got some time on his hands and something that needs promoting. With no Guardians of the Galaxy flicks on the way, Bautista will be hoping to attract attention for Stuber, the action-comedy that has him tagging up with The Big Sick‘s Kumail Nanjiani.
The unlikely pair are seen in the first look at Stuber, a buddy film that finds Bautista as a rogue cop and Nanjiani as an Uber driver, much like he was in The Big Sick. He isn’t playing the same character, is he, namely himself? Nah, he’s playing a guy named Stu, who gets recruited into helping Bautista’s character Vic Manning stop a vicious killer. Why would a guy who looks like Manning ever need Stu’s help? Because Manning just had Lasik eye surgery and isn’t allowed to drive. I’ve been there, it sucks for a while.
Bautista explains to EW…
“[Manning] doesn’t volunteer much information, but Stu is starting to figure things out and doesn’t really realize what he’s gotten himself into by picking up this passenger. So yeah, as you can imagine, they would butt heads a little bit.” And while the outlet says the film is aiming for the classic mismatched buddy cop dynamic of movies from the 1980s, it sounds like there might be a little of Michael Mann’s Collateral mixed in there as well, with a driver who’s totally in over his head with an unconventional passenger.”
He continues by describing Stu as the ultimate good guy who doesn’t want a bad Uber rating…
“Stu is the biggest do-gooder you could imagine. He’s very peaceful, a Buddhist/yoga type of person. So he just wouldn’t. He would feel guilty for the next three years if he actually turned down a ride. He’s really a kindhearted person.”
Stuber is directed by Michael Dowse (Goon) and has a terrific supporting cast that includes Natalie Morales, Betty Gilpin, Mira Sorvino, and The Raid’s Iko Uwais, which is giving me flashes of a Bautista/Uwais showdown. The film will debut at SXSW and hit theaters on July 12th.
