Cardi B Pulls Out On ‘Assisted Living’; Paramount Players Shutters NY Set Days Before Production Start

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Players has pulled the plug on its comedy feature Assisted Living after Cardi B backed away from the starring role, sources tell Deadline. The film was just a week away from starting production, and other cast and crew were just told the film has at least temporarily been scratched.

The $30 million film is produced by Temple Hill and was to be directed by Thembi Banks. In Assisted Living, Cardi B (Hustlers) was to play a low-level criminal on the run when she’s wrongly accused of a crime. She has to stay free long enough to prove her innocence and holes up at her grandmother’s retirement home. She fits in with the help of some old-lady prosthetics.

The reason for her pullout is that she is overextended.

This is happening in real time, and when a star pulls out of a movie this late, the exit often is followed by legal action. But sources say that the hope is to put the pieces back together later this year. Stay tuned.