13 Castings For New Movies That Prove Hollywood Has Gone Insane

2. Will Smith As The Genie

Film: Aladdin

He hasn't yet been cast, but Will Smith is strongly rumoured to be under consideration for the plum role of The Genie in Guy Ritchie's live action adaptation of Aladdin, and the Internet immediately went wild at the very suggestion.

How could anyone step into Robin Williams' shoes for such an iconic role? That was arguably his finest pure performance - certainly in terms of its theatricality - and the only candidates would be comedy actors capable of similar flair and able to do the same range of impressions.

To cast someone who had basically unlearned that sort of caricature-performing since he started doing Oscar-worthy work was bound to upset a lot of people.

Will It Work?

Look, it could have been a lot worse, let's just say that. And when you think back to Smith's more comic early roles, he had a certain flair for silliness and vocal gymnastics that would work without directly competing with Robin Williams' performance. And that might just be the key.