Though After Earth proved to be a painful stumble in terms of Will Smith starring in films where he plays a parent, that hasn’t led to him avoiding the role. He’s still attached to whimsical fantasy tale The City That Sailed, and the movie has now scored Shawn Levy for the calling of the shots.
Levy, who has taken time away from his big family franchises to make movies such as The Internship and the incoming This Is Where I Leave You, is currently getting in gear to return to big scale spectacle with a third N****ight At The Museum film. The City That Sailed also feels more in that mould, though without Ben Stiller being slapped by monkeys or Robin Williams mugging.
In fact, it has been in development for several years now, with Smith originally attached alongside his** I Am Legend** director Francis Lawrence. The, script, originally by Andrew Niccol, but now in the hands of The Game Pla****n’s Audrey Wells, follows a New York magician who sees his family split and his young daughter move to London. She discovers magic candles that can make her wishes comes true and ends up having Manhattan detach from the US and start floating closer to her. Proof positive, then, that children’s wishes are dangerous things and MUST BE DENIED AT ALL COSTS. Ahem. All right, only the ones that end with entire city islands floating off into the ocean.
Given Levy’s commitment to the new Museum film, we’d expect this one to wait until at least later next year to shoot. Smith has also been busy shooting con man drama Focus and producing Annie, which is out on January 13, 2015.