For a while there, it was looking like Will Smith was choosing to permanently be known as a producer and the driving force behind getting his kids to slowly take over the entertainment world. Well, between suiting back up for Men in Black III and the variety of other possible films he has simmering away in development, it looks like Will Smith: actor might just be back. And now, according to the writers of the movie, it appears he’s adding another likely project, Biblical update Joe.
Screenwriter Paul Tamasy, who was part of the team responsible for crafting The Fighter (and scored an Oscar nomination for his work) went on the Movie BS podcast hosted by Eric D Snider and Jeff Bayer and chatted up the idea, which is a modern version of the story of Job.
He’ll be playing Joe. The movie’s called Joe,” said Tamasy. “It’s about a man who is living the American dream. He’s got the nice house, white picket fence, great kids, great wife, nice cars. God and the devil get together every thousand years to bet on a man’s life, and the fate of the world is at stake. What all of us get hit with in a lifetime, this man gets hit with in one week. And it’s about whether or not he can still pick himself up from that and survive it. It’s a dramedy. At its heart, it’s a comedy — but it’s got, obviously, a real dramatic core to it.”
So it’s a comedy with drama at its heart? Or a drama with a vein of comedy running through it like Blackpool rock? Suppose we’ll find out. Tamasy and scripting partner/fellow Fighter writer Eric Johnson are busy with the latest draft that Sony and Smith’s Overbook Productions are waiting to see. Oh, and the writers are trying to convince David O Russell to direct, but he’s already got a busy diary.
Smith, meanwhile, is waiting for production to gear back up on MIB III, and will then likely knuckle down and pick a follow-up film, with The City that Sailed (the magical realism novel adaptation he pushed aside to put the Ray-Bans on again), Kathryn Bigelow’s Triple Frontier, a possible re-working of the Robin Hood story with the Wachowskis and vampiric thriller The Legend of Cain among the possible choices.
A tip of the hat to Collider for tracking down Tamasy's comments.