Dave Bautista Wanted My Spy to Have “Fighting Chance” in Theaters Before Sale to Amazon

My Spy star and producer Dave Bautista wanted the family-friendly action comedy to have a “fighting chance” in theaters before STX and MWM sold the movie to Amazon Studios for streaming on Amazon Prime amid ongoing movie theater closures. In the new movie from Tommy Boy and Get Smart director Peter Segal, nine-year-old Sophie (Chloe Coleman) catches hardened CIA operative JJ (Bautista) spying on her family during a routine surveillance operation. To prevent her from blowing his cover, the seasoned agent agrees to teach the girl how to become a spy — quickly turning his mission into a battle of wits.

“I want to know when I’m going back to work. I’m losing opportunities that I had,” Bautista said during a remote appearance on the Inside of You Podcast with Michael Rosenbaum. “My film My Spy that should have been released was not obviously able to be released into theaters, and I was really proud of it, because it’s a fun film, it’s a family film. It’s the first film I developed.”

The film, which also stars Kristen Schaal and Ken Jeong, currently has no release date on Amazon.

“Eventually it will be released,” Bautista said. “But I wanted it to have a fighting chance in the theaters, because I was pretty proud of it. I am proud of it.”

When the industry is safely able to resume work, Bautista vows to re-team with Schaal on a romantic comedy.

“I want to do a romcom… I want to do a romcom with Kristen Schaal, more than anything in the world,” he said. “I will get this done. Somehow I will get this done.”

During his appearance on Inside of You, the Guardians of the Galaxy and Dune star admitted he has difficulty being cast for more dramatic roles.

“What I really want to do, I like drama. Just regular old drama,” Bautista said. “Those roles for me are hard to get a hold of, but I’m constantly searching for them. But I’m limited sometimes. Sometimes it’s really hard to get people to look outside the box and see someone like myself in those roles.”

Bautista’s upcoming projects include Zack Snyder-directed Netflix zombie movie Army of the Dead, James Gunn and Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and director D.J. Caruso’s The Killer’s Game, where Bautista will play world-weary assassin Joe Flood.

My Spy will stream on Amazon Prime at a later date.