Following a two year break after Netflix's
Bright in 2017, Will Smith's resurgence continues as news breaks that he'll star in Paramount's adaptation of the 2013 sci-fi novel
Brilliance from Marcus Sakey. Smith was actually attached to star back in 2013 when the rights to the novel were first purchased by Legendary Pictures for $1.25 million USD.
The project never got off the ground and the rights reverted to Sakey, who then sold them on again to Paramount. Since 2013, Sakey has also released two additional sequels,
A Better World (2014) and
Written In Fire (2016).
Smith starred in
Aladdin earlier this year, which has grossed over $1 billion USD and is currently filming
Bad Boys 3, aka
Bad Boys For Life. He can next be seen in Ang Lee's
Gemini Man, out October 11 in North American theaters. Smith will also voice the lead character in the upcoming Blue Sky Studios animated pic,
Spies in Disguise, which is set for release in December.
Unfortunately, Smith's increasingly busy schedule meant he was unavailable to appear in James Gunn's
Suicide Squad sequel, which initially resulted in Idris Elba being cast to replace Smith before it was ultimately decided that Elba would play a different character, allowing Smith to return to the role in subsequent films.
In Wyoming, a little girl reads people’s darkest secrets by the way they fold their arms. In New York, a man sensing patterns in the stock market racks up $300 billion. In Chicago, a woman can go invisible by being where no one is looking. They’re called “brilliants,” and since 1980, one percent of people have been born this way. Nick Cooper is among them; a federal agent, Cooper has gifts rendering him exceptional at hunting terrorists. His latest target may be the most dangerous man alive, a brilliant drenched in blood and intent on provoking civil war. But to catch him, Cooper will have to violate everything he believes in—and betray his own kind.