Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart starred in Neil Burger‘s 2017 drama film The Upside, which was a remake of the 2011 French hit, The Intouchables. During an upcoming episode of Bill Maher‘s Club Random podcast, Cranston revealed that he and Hart are currently developing a sequel to the film, according to Variety. The episode, in which the Breaking Bad actor announced the news, will be released this Thursday. “We’re doing a sequel to it”, Cranston mentioned regarding the upcoming project.

In the interview, Bryan Cranston also talked about the backlash he received for portraying a person with disability in The Upside while being a non-disabled person himself, saying:

“I got a lot of shit for that. I am an able-bodied actor playing a disabled actor. I was pretty surprised that I got some blowback to it, and I thought, ‘There’s a good point, that disabled actors are not given an opportunity.’ It’s a kind of a catch-22 that… it’s like, ‘Do you have the cache to be able to carry a film?’”

The Upside, as well as its French counterpart, tell the story of Philip Lacasse (Cranston), a paralyzed billionaire who develops an unexpected friendship with Dell Scott (Hart), a recently paroled convict who is hired by Lacasse to take care of him. The pair’s friendship go through unexpected twists and turns, making Scott and Lacasse learn a lot from each other.

While the film wasn’t a critical success, it managed to take both of the actors’ careers in different directions. Cranston was widely known for his performance as Walter White, a school teacher who becomes a drug dealer, in AMC‘s 2008 crime drama Breaking Bad. On the other hand, Hart was famous due to his comedic roles in films such as Central Intelligence, and stand-up specials. Watching the two in a light-hearted comedy-drama was different from what their audiences were used to.

The original movie, directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012. While the film was selected as the French entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, it wasn’t nominated by the AMPAS (Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences). François Cluzet starred as Philippe, while Omar Sy gave a breakout performance in the role Bakary Bassari (the French version of the role Hart would play years later).

Cranston recently starred as Michael Desiato in Showtime‘s Your Honor. Desiato is a judge who finds himself in difficult circumstances when his son gets involved with criminals. Your Honor received mixed reviews from critics upon release, and the legal drama lasted for two seasons before reaching its conclusion.

Hart can be seen next in Lift, Netflix‘s upcoming heist thriller that also stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Vincent D’Onofrio and Úrsula Corberó. The studio released an image this month in order to promote the film, which is currently scheduled to release on August 25.

via Collider