Will Smith’s big film this year, After Earth, may not have worked out as well as he hoped, perhaps because he took a supporting role to his son, Jaden. That isn’t stopping him from setting up new projects, but this time he’s leaving the family at home. Smith is now circling the lead in 20th Century Fox’s **Selling Time.
Dan McDermott wrote – and will polish – the script, which has also seen passes from Spike Lee, and Derek and Steven Martini. The story finds a man given the chance to relive the worst day of his life and make things right, but at a cost. That price? Seven years off his life expectancy. Sounds like a right old demonic deal to us…
No director is attached yet, but with Smith getting closer to signing on, there is plenty of interest from big-name shot-callers.
In related Smith news, Roland Emmerich talked to The Playlist while out pimping the White House Down Blu-ray release. He mentioned that he still hopes that Smith will reprise his character in the Independence Day sequel, and that just in case, writer James Vanderbilt has apparently prepared one version of the script that features Smith’s Steve Hiller and one that doesn’t, which makes us wonder how much money Fox has already poured into this thing. Emmerich also says that the sequel idea is definitely planned as just one film for now. "I thought about spending four years of my life on one movie and I didn't want to turn into something from the movie,” he says. “It's a movie about aliens, I don't want to turn into an alien."
Smith will next be seen in Akiva Goldsman’s Winter’s Tale and is signed on to star in con man drama Focus. Behind the camera, he’s also producing the Annie remake, which is shooting right now.