Dave Bautista joins forces with a nine-year old in the trailer for his action-comedy, My Spy. The wrestler-turned actor has come a long ways since he started focusing more on his film career with direct-to-video projects like The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption just seven years ago. By this point, he’s played Drax the Destroyer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, portrayed a villain in the James Bond film Spectre, tackled a key supporting role in Blade Runner 2049, and even found room to work on indie fare like the futuristic sci-fi noir flick Hotel Artemis.

While Bautista will continue to work on big franchise releases (like Dune) in the future, he’s also branching out into the realm of original action-comedies. He’s currently slated to share the screen with Kumail Nanjiani in this summer’s Uber-based buddy adventure Stuber, and will appear opposite Big Little Lies’ Chloe Coleman in My Spy sometime thereafter (presumably before the end of the year). STX debuted the first My Spy footage at CinemaCon this week, and has since gotten the film’s official marketing off the ground and running.

The My Spy trailer is now online, ahead of its premiere in theaters. You can check it out in the space below, followed by the film’s poster.

As the trailer illustrates, My Spy revolves around a hardened CIA operative (Bautista) who’s demoted for not following orders, only to find himself being blackmailed into teaching a young girl (Coleman) the tricks of his trade, after she busts him for keeping surveillance on her apartment as part of his latest mission. The footage very much feels like a broad action-comedy in the vein of films like Kindergarten Cop and The Pacifier, where the humor comes largely from the idea of a big bruising action star having to match wits with a precocious kid (or kids). It’s a pretty recognizable formula, but also one that’s produced some genuinely entertaining movies in the past.

Bautista, for his part, seems comfortable playing the fish out of water role in My Spy, and for good reason. The actor’s proven he has a knack for blending action, comedy, and heartfelt drama in equal measure with his role as Drax, and already appears to have a playful dynamic going with Coleman in the My Spy footage released so far. With the Hoeber brothers (RED, The Meg) and Peter Segal (Get Smart) onboard as the writers and director, respectively, My Spy shouldn’t have much trouble clearing the not-too-high bar of quality that it’s clearly aiming for, either.

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Source: STX

  • My Spy Release Date: 2020-04-17