It feels like Will Smith has been absent from cinemas for some time, with only sporadic appearances over the past seven years or so in movies like Men in Black 3 and After Earth. However, he will next be seen in Focus alongside Margot Robbie, with DC Comics adaptation Suicide Squad also on the way next year.
Before then, Smith will star in football drama Concussion which will be released over Christmas in the US.
Another project now on the horizon for the actor is Bounty (which Paramount Pictures has just bought in the form of a spec script from Sascha Penn). It’s set in Boston and centers on a man (Smith) who is wrongly convicted of murder. He escapes from prison determined to prove his innocence—a nearly impossible task after the widow of the man he supposedly killed puts a $10 million bounty on him, dead or alive.
It should be fun to see Smith return to the action thriller genre with Bounty, though many are currently far more excited right now about the prospect of seeing him play Deadshot in his first superhero movie role.
Penn doesn’t have a a huge list of writing credits to his name, but is attached to write the script for MGM’s The Idolmaker. He’s also writing a firefighter project for Lionsgate, with Jeff Chan attached to direct. He previously sold the pitch Yakuza Vs. Mafia to Good Universe and the sci-fi spec The Ditch to Warner Bros.
