Will Smith is currently enjoying a nice break from acting, his first months of free time in years but it hasn’t stopped him making deals for his future projects.
Variety say Smith has gone straight out and hired Braveheart writer Randall Wallace to pen his movie about Taharqa, the pharaoh who battled Assyrian invaders in ancient Egypt around 677 B.C. Previously Chris Hauty (Never Back Down) and Carl Franklin (Devil in a Blue Dress) were on board to write.
Here is Taharqa, leading a procession….
The movie is The Last Pharoah and it’s setup at Columbia with Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment producing.
It’s the only real movie firmly on the horizon for Smith right now, though a third team-up with The Pursuit of Happyness director Gabrielle Muccino is possible, as are sequels to I, Robot, I Am Legend and Hancock.
His next movie is his second team-up with Muccino titled Seven Pounds due out around Christmas time.
Discuss: Do we think Will Smith is the right man to play a Pharoah, does he have the stature as a leader to pull it off when he is usually so good at playing the everyman?
8 Comments
For one I don’t think he’d be suitable, and secondly he’s not black enough. These were Nubians. I think Djimon Hounsou or Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje would be better in the role in every respect.
Smith didn’t say he’s star in it and if it was only a matter of “star-drawing” power then I’d say go ahead and hire Smith. But there’s nothing regal about him and this role requires someone of Denzel’s rare power (only younger) to pull it off.
But where is the next Denzel? Hollywood hasn’t bothered to cultivate such a figure.
In the end, considering how big the issue of Egyptian history is among African Americans it would certainly help the film to “open” big if he’d starred in it. But he wouldn’t want the controvesy, it would hurt his status as a “crossover” star.
And if it’s a matter of getting the best actor for the job, then I’d pass over Smith.
After the crappy way Pearl Harbor and The Man in the Iron Mask turned out there’s no way I’d hire Randall Wallace.
If Smith wants a screenwriter who understands historically-based drama then he’d better off getting John Logan (Gladiator, King Arthur) or Steven Zaillian. Doesn’t matter what they’re quotes are, they’ve proven they know the sub-genre and can deliver a winning script.
I think Will Smith is an perfect fit to play King Tarharqa. Hollywood wounldn’t considering making into
an film production, if Will Smith wasn’i invole.I do
believe that Djimon Hounsou, an Adewale Akinnoye Agbaje
should co star in the film along with Will Smith, to
add realism and believeability.
This movie is going to be Soooo historically inaccurate. Who asides from black people are going to want to see black people as the “heroes”? Asides from that the Nubians, or Kushites or Sudanese, or etc… weren’t even related to America’s West Africans. Nor were the Egyptians.
To the person who thinks Will Smith having a role as pharoah is ‘historicaly inaccurate’, I have question for you, have you actually read any books on african history ? Here are just a few :
Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization by Anthony T. Browder
Egypt Revisited by Ivan Van Sertima
Great Black Leaders: ancient and modern by Ivan Van Sertima
The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality by Chikh Anta Diop
Ancient Egypt – Light of the World by Gerald Massey
African Origins of Major “Western Religions” by Yosef A. A. Ben-Johchannan
This movie is going to be sick. I can’t wait to see us Assyrians demolishing the egyptions. Assyrian power for ever!!!
wow make this move already i just want to see us assyrians destroying the nubians and i want this movie to show how powerful my people were !!
The Nubians and ancient Egyptians should both be portrayed as primarily black because that is what they were. Even the so called father history who was an eyewitness of these ancient people clearly states that in his historical account.