Director Rawson Thurber Talks The Rock & Kevin Hart In Central Intelligence

Opening in theaters this weekend is one of the most unique and hilarious comedies of the year: Central Intelligence. The Warner Brothers film pairs two of the biggest stars in the world, Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, for a mission of national security.

At the helm of Central Intelligence is Rawson Thurber who previously ran the show laugh-out-loud films like Dodgeball and We’re The Millers. Thurber takes a story from Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen with the new film which often puts Johnson and Hart in situations they haven’t found themselves in on screen film.

“I’m a big, big Dwayne Johnson fan myself. Even more so after having made a movie with him,” Thurber tells ComicBook.com at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. “Having the biggest action star and the biggest comedy star in the world in the same movie, as a director you’re pretty lucky right off the bat. I guess what was so fun about it was how Kevin and Dwayne are very similar people that come in very different packages, of course. They’re both very hard working, very smart, and very driven.”

While Johnson and Hart may have very similar attitudes and lifestyles, their characters in Central Intelligence couldn’t have more of a contrast between them. “One of the things that’s so special about the movie is we took the biggest action star in the world and the biggest comedy star in the world and we switched their roles,” Thurber explains. “So, Kevin plays the straight man and Dwayne is the funny guy.”

If you follow the two actors on any sort of social media, you’ve seen the fun they had on set for this film and how much of a riot they have been on their press tour together. While several of their funny on-set moments made their way onto social media, Thurber reserved a few for the movie itself. “We’ve got a couple things right at the end of the movie,” Thurber promises, adding, “We’ve got a few outtakes I think you should stick around for.”

Mixed into all of the comedy is an underlying “anti-bullying message,” Thurber says. The director is quick to point out that this is “very important” to the film’s stars.

Central Intelligence opens in theaters this weekend.