It looks like Will Smith is once again eyeing a lead role in a science fiction film, this time for the movie ‘Selling Time’. While he hasn’t signed on the dotted line yet, it is rumored by “multiple individuals familiar with the project” that this is a done deal in everything but getting ink to paper.
Will Smith will portray a man who is given a chance to relive the worst day of his life. Most likely with a chance to change it. The issue with that, though, is to accept the offer he will lose seven years of his life. Time travel is clearly falling in the realm of science fiction but with the movie being billed as a supernatural thriller, one has to ask who exactly is making this offer to Smith’s character?
The film has been in development for years and has stalled for one reason or another. The script was originally written by Dan McDermott (‘Eagle Eye’, ‘Zero Hour’) and originally had Smith to star two years ago but due to scheduling conflicts was abandoned. Since that time, Spike Lee (‘Oldboy’) and the brothers Derick and Steven Martini (‘Bolden!’) have done rewrites. With all of the changes though, McDermott is going to be taking another look before it goes too much farther in development.
Even with the failure of ‘After Earth‘, Smith still has box office appeal as shown by the success of ‘Men in Black 3‘. I would wager that ‘After Earth’ being an M. Night Shyamalan film may have had something to do with that bit of a flop. So with a big box office draw and a mostly open schedule, unless Smith decides to do ‘Independence Day 2’ this seems like a good fit for him. He was already interested in the role at one point so it shouldn’t have been too hard a sell with no conflicts on the horizon.
Are you excited to see Will get jiggy with time? Or do you think ‘After Earth’ was a sign of things to come for Smith’s future in science fiction? Sound off below!
Source: Screen Rant
