In case you’ve forgotten, Will Smith is still an actor. It seems like Mister Box Office has been absent from action in front of the camera for a little while, giving way for his son, Jaden Smith, to develop, while also producing for both film and TV.
The actor will next be seen in the Warner Bros’ con-man/romance “Focus,” which centers on an inexperienced female con artist who teams up with a more seasoned male con artist, and sparks fly between them as they go about their con-artist ways.
Aussie actress Margot Robbie (“The Wolf of Wall Street“), co-stars alongside Smith, playing the inexperienced female con artist who rocks his boat.
Written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (“Crazy, Stupid, Love“), the project is one that the filmmakers had been trying to get off the ground for a couple of years, when their original idea was to re-team their “Crazy, Stupid, Love” co-stars, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, for the lead roles. Scheduling conflicts with Gosling got in the way of that happening.
Other top-tier actors had been courted for the part, including Brad Pitt. Pitt apparently wasn’t interested; but Ben Affleck was. However, he was pulled away by other commitments.
An interesting choice for Will Smith here, especially when you consider that, looking over his IMDBPro page, there are at least 20 different projects that he could’ve tackled next, over this one.
But maybe it’s a great script, and/or it provides him with the opportunity to do something different, assuming that it is.
So let’s see how this goes. I wish I could get my hands on the script for this. Will hasn’t exactly always been keen on doing love scenes on screen, so I’m curious if there are any in this one, since it’s said to be, in part, a love story, and how they’ll be handled given the obvious.
Courtesy of USA Today, above and below, you’ll find your first look at the film, via 2 images featuring the film’s stars.
And underneath, a 2013 press conference in Argentina (where the cast and crew did some shooting on the film), where Will shared some back-story on the character he plays, providing insight into the man, and his motivations. For those who don’t speak Spanish, you may (or may not) want to skip ahead to about the 1-minute mark.
“Focus” opens in theaters on February 27.
