A report surfaced this week that Will Smith is remaking the tearjerker Flowers for Algernon. Smith would star in the film and produce via his Overbrook Entertainment banner. There have been other adaptations, but the most famous one hails from 1968 and starred Cliff Robertson, who won the Oscar for playing Charly, a mentally challenged man who is a human test subject for a procedure that ups the intelligence quotient. The Algernon of the title is a lab mouse who also undergoes the surgery. When Charly learns the truth behind the experiment, the tissues come out big-time.
While the international box-office superstar Smith would certainly bring the story to a whole new generation, it also appears that Smith has remake fever. His company also owns the remake rights to Welcome to the Sticks, whose original, Bienvenue Chez les Ch’Tis, is the highest-grossing French film of all time. It made over $200 million at the box office in 2008 – to put that into perspective, the highest-grossing film of all time in France is Titanic, and that sold just under 300,000 more tickets than Les Ch’tis – but is about as “local” a comedy as they come. The film is set in a northern region of France that is known for its customs and rather bizarre patois. Smith hasn’t been attached to star in that project, but he would be a producer if it gets made. The question many in France posit with that one is where on Earth the film could be set in the U.S. to take proper advantage of what made the original so special.
Meanwhile, another Smith remake project, Old Boy, is apparently dead in the water this week. The original Korean film is a violent revenge drama directed by Park Chan-wook. Smith and Steven Spielberg were teamed for that project, but reports are that Spielberg’s DreamWorks has walked away.
In any case, if Smith is indeed remaking Algernon, it could potentially nab him the elusive Oscar he’s been after since he started peppering his resume with serious fare in between actioners and comedies. He was previously nominated in 2002 for Ali and in 2007 for The Pursuit of Happyness but has yet to make it to the podium.
That remake bug must run in the family: Smith’s son Jaden starred with his dad in The Pursuit of Happyness and had a role in The Day the Earth Stood Still, a remake of the 1951 original. Next up, he’ll wax on and wax off in the update of 1984’s Karate Kid.
The Casting Couch
- Last week we talked about The Tourist and the revolving door that cast and directors that have been entering and exiting since the project’s inception. The latest news was that star Sam Worthington had dropped out and Johnny Depp was being courted to step in. There hasn’t been any more on that, but director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who reportedly also left the project last week (to potentially be replaced by Alfonso Cuaron), told Movieline this week that he was indeed still attached. Referring to the premature reports of his departure, von Donnersmarck said, “In the trades, everything they say…I think you can discount a lot of it. It’s just a way of talking about the business, and sometimes things get out about heated points of discussion. We’ll see how it plays out with that one.”
- Another picture that has “change-up” written all over it is Moneyball. Brad Pitt is still attached to star as Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane in the project that’s based on Michael Lewis’ book, but the film is still without a director since Steven Soderbergh took a walk this summer. Sony then called in Aaron Sorkin to pinch-hit on Steven Zaillian‘s original script. And now it looks like the project is finding some heat once again. Directors Bennett Miller (an Oscar nominee for Capote) and Marc Webb (of summer sleeper (500) Days of Summer) have both reportedly met recently with the producers, studio and star. [link)
- Jake Gyllenhaal will play a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown commuter and is forced to relive a train bombing over and over until he can find the perpetrator in Source Code. This was one of the big titles selling at last week’s American Film Market in Santa Monica. Moon director – and son of David Bowie – Duncan Jones will direct. [link]
- There’s a reunion happening in the third Meet the Parents film, Little Fockers. Obviously it’s a reunion for all the main players, including Ben Stiller, Teri Polo, Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner and Robert De Niro, who’ve worked together in the previous two flicks. But news is just out that Harvey Keitel will also join the cast. The two mastodons of the Scorsese canon both appeared on screen in 1973’s Mean Streets and 1976’s Taxi Driver. They’ve worked in some other projects since but nothing as memorable as those two cinema verité pictures and they’ve never done a comedy together. Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand have yet to commit, but it is likely they will reprise their roles as the trippy Bernie and Rozalin Focker. [link]
