Will Smith Sails Into the City

Big Willie takes a bite out of the Big Apple, Craig and Jackman team up for Broadway, while Jon Heder hits the small screen

By Josh Grossberg Jul 09, 2009 6:18 PMTags
Will SmithRay Tamarra/Getty Images

Will Smith is ready to make a break for it.

Now that he's managed to empty New York of postapocalyptic zombies, Hollywod's most bankable star is joining forces again with his I Am Legend helmer, Francis Lawrence, for a film that will take him back to the Big Apple—or rather, take the Big Apple with him.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the director and star are eyeing 20th Century Fox's The City That Sailed as a potential starring vehicle for Smith.

Touted as a fantasy drama, the flick follows a street magician father and his daughter who reside on opposite ends of the Atlantic after circumstances force her to move to England. Her desire to be reunited with her dad is so strong that she causes the island of Manhattan to break off from the rest of North America and drift across the ocean.

Andrew Niccol, the Hollywood scribe who has brought moviegoers such offbeat flicks as The Truman Show and Gattaca, penned the whimsical script, which is currently being rewritten by Ocean's Thirteen duo Brian Koppelman and David Levien.

Smith, who will produce with Lawrence via his Overbrook Films, is currently overseeing The Karate Kid redo, The Kung Fu Kid, starring son Jaden, and he  is gearing up to shoot a remake of the controversial 2003 Korean thriller Old Boy.

Meanwhile, in other casting news:

  • It's confirmed! Two of Hollywood's most debonair leading men, current 007 Daniel Craig and Mr. Wolverine himself Hugh Jackman, are set to team up for the Broadway play Steady Rain. They play two Chicago cops whose friendship is rocked by a case. Ladies, start swooning.
  • Comic actor Jon Heder has snagged a small-screen deal to star in a 10-episode scripted comedy for Comedy Central. He'll play an unemployed I.T. specialist who returns to his small town and moves back in with his parents and younger brother.
  • Fresh off her headline-grabbing eulogy at Michael Jackson's public memorial Tuesday, Brooke Shields has signed on to costar opposite Brendan Fraser, Dick Van Dyke and The Daily Show's Samantha Bee in Furry Vengeance, a live-action family comedy about a band of racoons who battle a real-estate developer encroaching on their territory.
  • Veteran thesp Terry Kinney is aboard CBS' hit The Mentalist in a new recurring role as Agent Sam Bosco, a by-the-book policeman with a razor-sharp mind who heads up the California Bureau of Investigation's Serial Crimes Unit and is brought in to assist in the hunt for the notorious Red John serial killer.
  • Now that's he's almost fully recovered from successful heart surgery earlier this year, Robin Williams has plenty of new material for his latest stand-up tour, Weapons of Self Destruction, whose Washington D.C. stop HBO has announced will be turned into a comedy special. The show will be the funnyman's first solo stand-up appearance for the pay-cable net since 2002.
  • Last but not least, it's not a casting item per se, but Michael Moore has finally unveiled the title of his latest polemic. Capitalism: A Love Story, which focuses on the current global economic meltdown,  controversial Wall Street bailouts and corporate malfeasance, hits theaters Oct. 2.