In the action-comedy The Pickup, a routine cash pickup takes a wild turn when two mismatched armored truck drivers, Russell (Eddie Murphy) and Travis (Pete Davidson), are ambushed by ruthless criminals led by a savvy mastermind, Zoe (Keke Palmer), with plans that go way beyond the cash cargo. As chaos unfolds around them, the unlikely duo must navigate high-risk danger, clashing personalities, and one very bad day that keeps getting worse.
No stranger to helming both action and comedy, director Tim Story (Fantastic Four, Barbershop) blends his tested sensibilities with The Pickup (you can read our review here), and as the film arrives to stream on Prime Video this week, Peter Gray spoke with the filmmaker about his creative process when tackling these genres, how it felt to let his comedically capable cast loose, and what film he would choose to personally put through the action-comedy genre ringer.
The Pickup reminded me of the films that I grew up watching, with that blend of action and comedy. Because you’ve had experience with both genres, how does your creative process adapt as you’re going from genre to genre and then fusing them together?
You know, what’s great is you’re always starting with the base in these buddy comedies, where you (have) the “formula” and then you’re looking for how do you make it different than what you’ve seen? I think, first and foremost, you have to take the characters, or the actors that are playing them, and lean into their strengths. When you start with Eddie Murphy, he’s got so many strengths, you can kind of go wherever you want. But what was great is to have him as a partner, in terms of producing, and this project was to find out what he wanted to do. And one of the things he said very early on was he wanted to be the straight guy. He wanted to find a partner that would bounces off the walls and be the comedy element.
Then, of course, he would add stuff in where he needed to, but that’s what was interesting about (The Pickup). Already you’re doing this switch, and if you got Eddie Murphy and he’s going to play your straight guy, you need to find somebody that can be pretty funny and give you the uncontrollable zaniness of a character to have Eddie bounce off of. That was the concept, and once we had that, I think putting them in familiar situations still made it different, because you’ve got these new personalities.
I know Pete was saying that there would be scenes with the scripted lines, and then you let the cast loose. In any way is there a bit of fear in letting Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson and Keke Palmer loose?
(Laughs) No, no fear at all. You’re expecting them to surprise you, (so) that fear, those butterflies in your stomach about what may come up in this pairing, or this threesome, you know that with Eddie Murphy, no matter what he does…I’d watch him make a sandwich and it would be entertaining. It’s just one of those things. When you have this type of talent, it actually makes it more interesting, because no matter what you get, it’s going to be worth it. That’s the fun part. So, not a lot of fear, just curiosity of what you’re going to end up with.
Is there any moment that didn’t end up in the final cut that you kind of wish was there?
You know, not really. I know that sounds like I might be skirting, but you’d be surprised. I think we only took out three scenes of what we filmed, and two of those scenes didn’t have (Eddie) in it, so we only lose one scene. The rest of it is kind of what we shot, and knock on wood, which means it all worked and deserved to be in the film. And I’m excited about that. We found great combinations. And because it’s a movie that has a linear story that happens in one day, you kind of need the scenes to follow each other. And it’s always great when you can make each scene entertaining.
And looking at action-comedy as your nice little wheelhouse, if you could direct any classic film, but make it into an action-comedy, what do you think you would choose?
Oh, my God. Any classic film and make into an action-comedy? Some of my favourites are action-comedies (laughs). I would probably say When Harry Met Sally. Is there any way to make (that) an action-comedy?
The Pickup is streaming on Prime Video from August 6th, 2025.
