After starring together in the 2017 action-comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson are teaming up again, but this time, they’ll be appearing in bite-size episodes for Quibi.
According to the fledging streaming service, Reynolds and Jackson will be starring in an animated series titled Futha Mucka, and the description they provided makes about as much sense as, well, Quibi. Via Variety:
“Futha Mucka” will see Jackson play Reynold’s primary caregiver. Here’s the rather odd logline that Quibi provided for the series: Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds love each other. More accurately, Ryan loves Sam. When asked for comment on his feelings for Ryan, Sam said “tell them I couldn’t be reached for comment.” When a minor mishap causes Sam to become Ryan’s primary caregiver, sh*t gets weird. Ryan is delighted to spend all of his time with Sam. Sam couldn’t be reached for comment.
Your guess is as good as ours for what’s happening there.
The announcement of Futha Mucka arrives at a tumultuous time for Quibi. The streaming service recently made headlines for its low rate of converting users to the platform after their free trial ended. Quibi reportedly lost over 90% of its subscribers, which is not great. Co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberger also raised eyebrows when he blamed the app’s rough start on the pandemic, which was an odd statement considering quarantine conditions have provided a captive audience for most other streaming services.
On top of all that, Quibi employees have voiced their frustration with higher-ups shelling out huge paydays to stars like Reese Witherspoon as the company proceeded to dole out salary cuts and layoffs. With that in mind, we’re guessing landing Reynolds and Jackson wasn’t cheap, but maybe they’re just the star power Quibi needs to turn things around.
(Via Variety)