Will Smith Boards Collateral Beauty

The Fresh Prince replaces Wolverine on up-coming drama.

By Daniel Kelly /

Less than a month after Hugh Jackman€™s exit from the project, Collateral Beauty has found a replacement in Will Smith. Smith will play a mild-mannered advertising executive battling with depression, requiring the aid of his friends and colleagues to snap him out of the sickness. Rooney Mara and Jason Segel are also attached, presumably as some of Smith€™s saviours. The project will be directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (also behind next month€™s much hyped Me, Earl & The Dying Girl) and is based on a screenplay by Allan Loeb (Just Go With It). Loeb€™s script sold to PalmStar Media for a hefty $2.25 Million, so it should be no surprise development has promptly realigned with another A-lister. Smith was considered the biggest movie star in the world not so long ago, but a string of flops including 2008€™s Seven Pounds and 2013€™s After Earth have somewhat diminished his brand. Earlier this year he posted modest returns on heist-romance Focus, but even its $153 million haul pales in comparison to previous hits like I Am Legend and Hancock. What that means for Collateral Beauty is unclear; although it can€™t hurt that Smith will soon be part of DC€™s expanding universe as a gnarled member of David Ayer€™s heavily anticipated Suicide Squad. Collateral Beauty is tentatively set for a late 2016 debut. Suicide Squad lands on UK shores 5th August 2016.