Michael Mann trusts Will Smith to lead his EMPIRE!
Michael Mann and Will Smith are doing a movie together again. It’s called Empire and it comes from a John Logan (Gladiator, The Last Samurai) script. He’s also the guy who Mann commissioned to write the screenplay for The Aviator with the intention of directing it himself, until he left it in the capable hands of Martin Scorsese.
Variety are as clueless as we are as to what Empire is about but they can confirm that Smith is expected to play a media mogul. Does that hint that this movie might be a more dramatic affair, than the action stuff he has given us over the last few years?
The Columbia Pictures movie which Mann and Smith are both producing with their respective shingles, will be the first time the pair have teamed together since Ali six years ago, probably the worst received biopic of a legendary figure in recent times.
Mann has to decide whether to go for this movie, the DiCaprio Hollywood noir movie, a movie on the events that led to the death of Alexando Litvinenko or a movie about American World War II pilot Billy Fiske as his next picture, though it’s my understanding that he is not working pre-strike (if he is, it will be the Billy Fiske movie he works on).
Categories: Movie News
2 Comments »
Leave a comment
-
TWILIGHT only fun for fans?
November 21st, 2008
-
Mila Kunis joins THE BOOK OF ELI
November 21st, 2008
-
Brolin admits JONAH HEX script was awful
November 21st, 2008
-
Will Smith says OLDBODY remake, is not a remake
November 21st, 2008
-
Universal may go back to Ludlum after all for BOURNE IV?
November 21st, 2008
-
JUNO director ditches Ellen Page for his next movie & casts a TWILIGHT unknown
November 21st, 2008
-
THE WRESTLER trailer in HD!
November 21st, 2008
-
Peter Segal still attached to CAPTAIN MARVEL
November 21st, 2008
-
Olyphantastic leads THE CRAZIES
November 21st, 2008
-
Early ASTRO BOY teaser in HD!
November 21st, 2008
-
Editorial: VALKYRIE shows Cruise needs Apatow
November 20th, 2008
-
James Bond movies and the shaky-cam action aesthetic - is this progress?
November 19th, 2008
-
Editorial: Why STAR TREK Fails
November 18th, 2008
-
Friday editorial: Lack of BOND gives me SOLACE!
November 14th, 2008
-
The top 10 films about “the industry.”
November 9th, 2008
Will Smith playing a father who emotes and gives some hip one-liners is one thing, but he simply can’t carry a dramatic role. He doesn’t have the chops, he doesn’t know how.
I wouldn’t buy Will in the part, neither would anyone else. He may be “marketable” but he isn’t believeable. Part of why Ali flopped. He can’t get anyone to take him seriously. He’s a joke.
Unless this is some sort of dramedy, but since when has Mann made one of those?
This sounds more like a part Denzel should be playing.
Comment by JaySmack | October 11, 2007
Can’t carry a dramatic role? Ali flopped due to a horrible marketing campaign…Ali himself sought out Smith for the role and he was later nominated for an oscar. He mastered his dialect, movement etc. In pursuit of happyness smith showed he can act; if you really havent analyzed or validated his efforts in either film dont brand him with “he cant carry a dramatic role.” smith carried pursuit of happyness on his shoulders, much like hanks in cast away. it takes a strong actor to do that, certainly one who can at least play a dramatic role convincingly.
Comment by James | October 12, 2007