Will Smith's next; MEN IN BLACK 3 or THE CITY THAT SAILED
According to today's Variety, the 5,000 potential Will Smith starring vehicles developed during the actor's break since "Seven Pounds", has now been whittled down to two choices; "Men in Black 3" and "The City That Sailed", the latter a 20th Century Fox fantasy/adventure. Both projects are in need of a director and want to film this Summer. Etan Cohen ("Tropic Thunder", "Idiocracy") has written the screenplay for the third "Men in Black" which will find Smith's Agent J traveling back in time to meet a younger Agent J, apparently. Tommy Lee Jones won't be involved (I think he's retired from this kind of movie now) and it's previously been rumoured that his "No Country For Old Men" co-star Josh Brolin, would portray J as a younger man. The movie clearly has momentum at Sony who want this out next summer. Recently, Sacha Baron Cohen and "Flight of the Conchord's"Jermaine Clement were competing for the mysterious role of Yaz, presumed to be an alien in the feature. Fox's "City That Sailed" is penned by the talented Andrew Niccol, writer/director of "Gattacca" and Oscar nominated for his "Truman Show" screenplay... It's setup at Smith's Overbook Entertainment. Variety say;
"City that Sailed" revolves around a New York street magician who is unhappily separated from his young daughter. The girl, who moves to London, finds magic candles that make her wishes comes true, with unintended consequences: The island of Manhattan separates from the continent and floats toward England, bringing her dad ever closer.Originally, the project was setup for Smith's "I Am Legend" director Francis Lawrence to helm before he went off to make "Water for Elephants" with Robert Pattinson, Christina Ricci and Christoph Waltz.
Those projects bizarrely included sequels to nearly all the big franchises he has previously starred in (including "Hancock 2", "Men in Black 3", "Bad Boys 3", "I Robot 2","I Am Legend 2"), a couple of original tentpoles ("Earth vs. Moon", "The Last Pharaoh") and the Steven Spielberg remake of "Oldboy".
The latter was eventually shot down, but the rest are still being developed as far as I'm aware and we've since heard of a script being put together for an "Independence Day 2" (Yes, yet another franchise reprisal), a strange remake of Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion"and an adaptation of the popular novel "Flowers For Algernon".