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US major seals worldwide deal for Chris Hemsworth/Tiffany Haddish comedy

Chis Hemsworth (Photo credit Gage Skidmore via Flickr).

Paramount Pictures has won a bidding war for Down Under Cover, a mismatched buddy cop comedy that will star Avengers: Endgame‘s Chris Hemsworth and Girls Trip‘s Tiffany Haddish.

The studio acquired worldwide rights in the auction conducted by CAA and FilmNation Entertainment in Cannes, topping offers from Lionsgate, Sony, Netflix, Miramax and STX.

Deadline valued the deal – hailed as the biggest ever by a US major at Cannes – at close to $50 million while Variety’s estimate was $40 million.

Scripted by Peter Hoare, the project was developed by Thematic Entertainment, the production company launched last year by Hemsworth and Aussie producers John Finemore, James Hoppe and Ben Grayson.

Shooting is due to start in Australia in February, produced by The Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo and Mike Larocca under their AGBO banner, the Thematic trio and Haddish. The director is yet to be named.

Hemsworth will play a detective who goes undercover to crack a series of casino heists in which the prime suspects are a troupe of Australian male erotic dancers. He’s forced to take the partner no one else will — Haddish’s character, a lone wolf who does things only one way: hers. Together they have to work as an unlikely duo to solve the crime of their careers.

Hoare’s credits including Killing Hasselhoff, which starred Ken Jeong as a struggling nightclub owner who resorts to desperate measures in order to pay off a loan shark, and Standing Up, Falling Down, a comedy directed by Matt Ratner which stars Billy Crystal and Ben Schwartz.