After being absent from cinema screens since the lacklustre movie Seven Pounds touched down back in 2008, and having only produced the remake of The Karate Kid (which is due out later this year and stars his son, Jaden Smith, as the kid himself, and martial arts legend Jackie Chan as his trainer) since then, The Fresh Prince is once again ready to take up a starring role, but currently has two major movies vying for his attention.
The first of his two possible choices is The City That Sailed; a fantasy adventure film that was written by Andrew Niccol, and follows a New York magician whose daughter moves to London and promptly finds some magic candles that grant her wishes, and causes Manhattan to detach from the United States and float towards her in London; which is being developed by Smith’s own Overbrook production company, and backed by Fox, who want to start shooting as soon as possible, despite the fact that the film is currently lacking a director.
The other choice would see Will return to one of his biggest and most beloved franchises; reprising his role as Agent J in Men In Black 3; which would be guaranteed hit for all involved, and is probably why Sony are desperate to lock Smith in, and have the picture released either sometime in 2011 or 2012.
So far it’s anybody’s guess what the Fresh Prince will choose; a gamble on a new and exciting project, or a return to a huge, and easily marketable, franchise that will likely bring him another soundtrack hit, and have millions of fans nodding their heads; because despite making some truly inspired choices in the past (after Hancock he gained the record for the actor who starred in the most consecutive $100 million-grossing movies, with eight in a row), he has also made some real blunders as well (not only turning down the role of Neo in The Matrix, but everyone remembers the train wreck that was Wild Wild West).
Here’s hoping that whatever project he chooses will be the right one, and that for now, The Karate Kid proves to be as good as the trailers make it look, and not just a shameless rip off of the original.
