Vampires,
again?? Not only is
Johnny Depp jumping on board the vamp-craze bandwagon, but now too is fellow A-lister
Will Smith, in what might be the strangest sounding tentpole pitch we've heard in a while. According to
Deadline, Smith is gearing up to play Cain in an "epic retelling" of the biblical sibling tale
The Legend of Cain, but with vampires involved, somehow. I guess it's a sign of the depressing times that Mike Fleming reports the vampire tidbit with such nonchalant familiarity. It truly is no longer shocking that vampires are involved in anything right now. In the Hebrew Bible, Cain and Abel are the sons of Adam, with Cain, the original 'bad boy' being the 'first murderer' (or the real origin of evil). So we guess Abel comes back to life with fanged teeth and Smith has to take him out
I Am Legend style? Oh we don't know, we're reaching - but
vampires? WHY? Ah wait we've got it!! The movie is being co-written by
Caleeb Pinkett (brother-in-law to Smith's wife
Jada Pinkett, who is also producing) - so we might be wrong but we're guessing it's a family favour thing.
Seriously. Smith's just the kind of nice guy to help out his friends/family (he officially became the coolest Dad ever when he bought the remake rights to
The Karate Kid so his son could re-create his favourite movie) and logically, we can't see any other reason why he would be down for this. The other credited writer is
Dan Knauf (a t.v. journeyman) with
Andrea Berloff (World Trade Center) revising. Movie is setup at Smith's Overbrook Entertainment and is searching for a studio home, and then will need a director. In the mean time, Smith is preparing a movie that probably his daughter wanted to see him make,
Men and Black 3, that shoots in August.