“Cobra Kai” creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald have closed a deal to write a new sequel for buddy stoner comedy “Harold and Kumar” at Mandate Pictures, TheWrap has learned. Hurwitz and Schlossberg will also direct the film.
Franchise stars John Cho and Kal Penn are expected to return, but no deals have been made yet.
“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 in a joint statement to the Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the news. “It’s high time they puff and pass their wisdom onto a new generation. Just don’t tell their kids.”
The franchise centers on stoner pals Harold Lee (Cho) and Kumar Patel (Penn), who embark on bizarre adventures while under the influence of weed. The series has grossed $104 million worldwide at the box office.
The “Harold and Kumar” franchise has yielded three films; 2004’s “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle,” which the trio wrote and then went on to make their directorial debut with 2008’s “Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay.” The third film, “A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas,” was released in 2011.
Hurwitz, Schlossberg and Heald are also producing the sequel via their Counterbalance Entertainment banner, alongside franchise producer Greg Shapiro. Lionsgate-owned Mandate, who also produced the original three films in the series, will also produce.
The untitled sequel will be one of the first projects produced by Lionsgate’s current motion picture group president Nathan Kahane, who is leaving the studio at year’s end and returning to Mandate to be a producer.
Hurwitz, Schlossberg and Heald, as well as Counterbalance, are repped by CAA and Hansen Jacobson.
