When we think Will Smith, two kinds of films come to mind: macho action flicks like “Men in Black” and “I Am Legend,” and emotional (and sometimes manipulatively so) tearjerkers like “The Pursuit of Happyness” and his most recent “Seven Pounds.” Generally, biblical interpretations aren’t really on the list.
Things change, though, and Smith has signed on to star in and produce “The Legend of Cain,” a supposedly epic re-imagination of the good ol’ first murderer himself. And, perhaps not surprisingly but still unfortunately, there’s an extra twist— vampires. We wish we were kidding.
Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment (which includes wife Jada Pinkett Smith, James Lassiter and Ken Stovitz) is producing from a script by Caleeb Pinkett (yes, Jada’s brother and actor) and Dan Knauf (“Carnivale”), with revisions by Andrea Berloff (“World Trade Center,” “Domestic”). No director or studio is attached yet.
Right now, Smith is busy promoting the reboot of “The Karate Kid” (starring his son, Jaden Smith) and will start filming on “Men in Black III” in August. How will this affect “Paper Wings,” the rodeo romance drama that we mentioned yesterday that Smith was reading for along with Tom Cruise, Anna Kendrick and others? No way to tell for sure now, but the clock is ticking, at least to some extent, as Cruise is locked in to “Mission Impossible IV,” due out in December 2011.
