free counter with statistics Will Smith Signs onto Flowers for Algernon | Pajiba - Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People

i_am_legend_mov.jpg
Pajiba Exclusive: Will Smith to Remake Flowers for Algernon

He Will Win that Oscar Yet / Dustin Rowles

Trade News | November 9, 2009 | Comments (43)

Two-time Academy Award nominee, Will Smith, may have found the project that will finally win him that elusive Oscar. According to our inside source, The Hollywood Cog, Smith is set to produce and star in Flowers for Algernon, a modern-day adaptation of the Daniel Keyes’ novel. The movie is being set up at Sony Pictures and Smith’s production company, Overbrook Entertainment, along with Polksy Films. Tracy Nyberg, an associate producer on Hancock and an assistant to Will Smith on I Am Legend, is also set to produce.

Flowers for Algernon has been adapted several times since it was originally published in 1959, most famously Ralph Nelson’s Charly, which won Cliff Robertson an Academy Award in 1969. The short story (and the subsequent novel) is about Charlie, a mentally retarded man who is the first human test subject for an experimental surgery that artificially increases intelligence. The experiment had already been performed successfully on Algernon, a lab mouse. Charlie’s newfound intelligence (his IQ skyrockets from 68 to 185), however, comes at the cost of his ability to socialize normally, as he becomes increasingly alienated from those around him. Emotional consequences are involved when Charlie learns the truth of the experiment.

The project seems ideal for Smith, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performances in Ali and Pursuit of Happyness. Smith will bring his populist appeal to yet another Oscar contender.

Smith has several other projects currently in development, including an American remake of Oldboy, potential sequels to Hancock and I, Robot, in addition to a prequel to I Am Legend. No word on where Flowers for Algernon will fall into Smith’s filming schedule, but I’d expect the project to be fast-tracked, once a director comes aboard. And though no director has been announced, Smith’s Happyness and Seven Pounds collaborator, Gabriele Muccino, seems a likely candidate.


← Jake Gylenhaal Signs to Duncan Jones' Source Code | The Box Review →



Comments

So he's going full retard?

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at November 9, 2009 11:10 AM

I am actually a little excited by the prospect of Will Smith as "Charly." I think he could do a great job with the material. The man can act, when he can be bothered.

Posted by: Jerce at November 9, 2009 11:13 AM

And the Oscar bating begins...

Posted by: John Denver's Wingman at November 9, 2009 11:21 AM

Thank you for confirming that your name is "Aw-Hell Naw". Please wait while I complete your tattoo ID on your arm.

Posted by: laredo at November 9, 2009 11:34 AM

Wait, there's a novel? I only ever knew about the short story. I'm such a retard.

Posted by: Lucas at November 9, 2009 11:36 AM

I'm fucking sick of Will Smith.

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at November 9, 2009 11:43 AM

And the Oscar bating begins...

What if they brought on Tom Hanks? Because that guy is a master Oscar baiter.

Posted by: branded at November 9, 2009 11:45 AM

I've always felt Daniel Day Lewis is the best if you want some serious Oscarbating.

Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at November 9, 2009 11:48 AM

BarbadoSlim,

You just took the Comment of the Week, there's no point in even trying anymore.

I think if you've won the top 10 list at least once you can't participate until we've all won.

Or maybe I'm just jaded that my alcoholic father story only got me to NUMBER THREE, and something with robots and zombie sex won that week. And I've never been on the list since.

Not that I'm complaining or anything.

(kid voice) But BarbadoSlim gets on the list all the time and it's not faaaaaaaaair!

Posted by: scorzi at November 9, 2009 11:48 AM

It's only Oscar bating when you purposely go after a project that looks/sounds/feels/screams Oscarry or Oscarness (e.g. retards [half OR full], holocaust anything, the abused, mentally deranged). And DDL doesn't bate, he's just that fucking good. The guy does like a project every 2-3 years. If he were to bate, he'd work A LOT more often.

Posted by: John Denver's Wingman at November 9, 2009 11:58 AM

"purposely"?

Oh my.

Posted by: laredo at November 9, 2009 12:11 PM

Man, this is gonna be the most depressing movie of the year. Gotta love Oscar bait.

Posted by: agent bedhead at November 9, 2009 12:19 PM

He should have won an Oscar for Six Degrees of Separation...then again there was that other movie with a gay man that won an Oscar in 1993.

Posted by: DeistBrawler at November 9, 2009 12:32 PM

This is the worst ever. Will Smith was barely decent in one movie fifteen years ago. It's one thing for Hollywood to still put stock in him, because he earns, but it's a bit surprising to see any affection for him here.

Posted by: Dur. at November 9, 2009 12:42 PM

....well fuck Phil Collins then!

Posted by: Guess Who! at November 9, 2009 12:49 PM

Posted by: Lucas at November 9, 2009 11:36 AM

... Wait, there's a short story?

Posted by: Anna von Beaverpuppet at November 9, 2009 12:53 PM

Nooooooo! The book made me cry! $28.50 says the movie makes me cry too...but for different reasons

Posted by: esme at November 9, 2009 12:57 PM

Scorzi:
Are you new?
Zombies and robots ALWAYS trump alcoholic/pornographic family stories around here. This is how I know I will never be #1 in the EE's. (Also because I am not that funny.) Which is OK by me, I feel quite at home in the 3-4 region.
Besides, after #1 in the EE's what is really left to conquer? Haven't you seen the E! True Hollywood Stories about some of the poor fuckers who get too successful too early? There is nowhere to go but down. Before you know it you have blown through all of the fame and fortune and you find yourself sucking cock for beer money. Sad really.

*Wasn't #1 Darth Corleone (DCRE)? Did I miss something?*

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at November 9, 2009 1:08 PM

Lindsey you are so correct, once upon a time a won the EE and it was all down hill from there. I was an outcast, I was a man without a home. No one prepared me for life after winning EE, things go so bad, I didn’t have to suck cock thankfully, but nonetheless things got really dark for me. I’m slowly coming out of the darkness, I now have a support system which I’m grateful for.

Posted by: Guess Who! at November 9, 2009 1:22 PM

Did no one see Charly? That movie was fucked. up. And boring. It just went along all boring and cheesy and then suddenly WHAM ! SUPER PSYCHEDELIC 70s MONTAGE! WITH MOTORCYCLES! OH THE CONFUSION!

One big pile of what the fuck, that movie.

Posted by: figgy at November 9, 2009 1:41 PM

I feels ya, Guess Who!. I feels ya.

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at November 9, 2009 1:54 PM

To the entity known as "Lindsey with an 'e'":

What is left to conquer after Eloquent Eloquence supremacy? There is much left to conquer, human. During the EPOCH OF ROBOTS, there will be no more of your VH1 or E! television specials barely stimulating your mortal brains with vapid tales of celebrity and success past. There will be no more cocks to suck or beers to imbibe. We robots seldom bother with the associated organic orifices. There will simply be robotic dominion over every single cubic micrometer of what you currently believe to be "your" planet.

If you are wise, Pajiban, you will be careful not to confuse accolades for DarthCorleone with accolades for his robotic executioner. His is a feeble, ephemeral wit, but mine is a robotic wit that prevails and endures.

Posted by: DarthCorleone's Robotic Executioner at November 9, 2009 5:03 PM

Hmmmph. As long as there is a hierarchical system in place there will be cocks to suck.

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at November 9, 2009 5:07 PM

Hmmmph. As long as there is a hierarchical system in place there will be cocks to suck.

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at November 9, 2009 5:07 PM
---
Does this still count with woman riding cowgirl?

Posted by: , (TCFKAB) at November 9, 2009 5:21 PM

'Does this still count with woman riding cowgirl?'

Yeah. Because girl on top TOTALLY means she is running the show. Right.
/Sarcasm

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at November 9, 2009 5:23 PM

If she has spurs and a riding crop, she is.

Posted by: , (TCFKAB) at November 9, 2009 6:09 PM

His is a feeble, ephemeral wit, but mine is a robotic wit that prevails and endures.

Posted by: DarthCorleone's Robotic Executioner at November 9, 2009 5:03 PM

------------------------------------

DEATH TO HUMANS!!

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at November 9, 2009 6:31 PM

Oh Big Daddy, you have been married for a Looooong time. You know the 'position' that dictates who is running the show:

Lady recumbent on sofa, gentleman vacuuming/doing dishes/mowing yard.
That is power. Sucking Cock is metaphor.

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at November 9, 2009 6:40 PM

I hope Smith has to kill another dog in this. That should become his signature move.

Posted by: Daniel Hall at November 9, 2009 7:14 PM

BarbadoSlim:

Forget what I said about your comment. Daniel Hall just beat you.

Posted by: scorzi at November 9, 2009 7:46 PM

Yeah, I won the EE once. It was terrible. The parachute pants weren't enough, I was buying seven luxury daguerrotypes a day, I and nearly got busted for selling pieces of the True Reliquary. I guess I'm just too real to represent the Gaza Strip Mall, huh? Land cows, you. My screenplay, The Erotic Life and Triumphs of Vaclav Havel: The Czech That Bounced was denounced as 'a pointless, necrotic-soaked nightmare' by Semaphore Weekly, and my instructional novella, Eugenics, Phrenology And The Negro Conspiracy was derided as 'base, reptilian trash whose moral repugnance [was] outmatched only by [my] inability to end any phrase without the words 'kiss THAT panda!' instigated a total pamphlet war that made The War Of The Buffoons look like, well, The War Of The Buffoons (but with second Derek). Everything changed. Food lost its flavour and you can't salt the ice cream of the soul. Cranked on peyote and Dristan, I purchased the Aghia Triada and island of Corfu from a spiritual guide who I know only as Sensei Guru: Fifth Cousin to Gurdjieff. The pressure put upon me by the Sufis was so intense, I spent my last Fort Knox deposit dipping the island in gold, and though Andorra and I are no longer on speaking terms, I will always be its little girl. However, if you tell Alsace about this, I will deny it up and down. But to the shit-stirrers at Knossos, know this: you can kiss my chryselephantine ass and build me a hall of doric columns while you're at it! I have spoken this, and it is now declared both science and precious ambergris!

An alternate reading of the Oscar-baiting situation:

I don't know that Will Smith would work more if he were truly Oscar-baiting. So many of them talk about the 'alternate space' they have to inhabit when working on their 'craft' (cue James Lipton sycophantic adoration of tented-finger intensity), and that the 'journey' can be a long and arduous one. Cry me a seagull. If he works less, we can infer that he is singularly devoted to 'the process', thereby proving his seriousness and earning middlebrow brownie points. He so BRAVE! Fuckers.

I've always hated this 'Tardin' for Dollars bullshit. So naked and transparent, so calculated and cynical. Thanks for the embarrassing caricature, Posse von Autism, I love you! You know that when some travesty of humankind decides to tell the story of a man with cerebral palsy who is imprisoned at Dachau that it time to blow up the earth and just start over.

Who's sucking the what, now?

Posted by: Jo 'Mama' Besser at November 9, 2009 7:48 PM

That short story was so sad. Poor algernon! I will not see this, no matter how many aw hell naws there are in it.

Posted by: Chugga at November 9, 2009 8:15 PM

Sweet motherhumping buttholes, BSlim.

ME (reading headline): "Looks like Will Smith is going full retard."

HUSBAND: "You should post that in the comments."

ME: Heh heh. (scrolling) Son of a VONDRUKE! He did it again!"

Gotta get one of my minions/students to bypass the block on Pajiba at work...

Posted by: superEdna at November 9, 2009 8:30 PM

"Cranked on peyote and Dristan,"

That explains it. That is some glorious stream of semi-consciousness ranting there.

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at November 9, 2009 8:38 PM

@ scorzi:

I'm just a man who knows what he likes.

And what I likes is dog killin'.

(In movies, not in real life. I mean... I assume they didn't really kill a dog for I Am Legend. Unless Smith insists on getting to kill a real dog, for his 'method'. Which would make him both more and less badass).

Posted by: Daniel Hall at November 9, 2009 9:17 PM

Next person to win EE gets eaten. And not in the good way.

Posted by: figgy at November 9, 2009 9:31 PM

No Eucharist For Oil!

@Lindsey: Heh, thanks. Words are fun, but I'm all talk. In actuality, I'm an unfortunately respectable and thoroughly boring girl. And should anyone have to endure the terrible adventure of entering into a talk about my academic pursuits, that poor soul will feel nigh on gibbeted by my pedantic musings. It was fun while it lasted though, huh?

Um, drugs overdose, and stuff. 'We are the Mods', rebel-i-can. THING!

Posted by: Jo 'Mama' Besser at November 9, 2009 11:09 PM

I could have sworn he won the Oscar for Ali. I love Flowers or Algernon (the written version-I've never seen any of the film/TV versions). I don't see Will Smith in it.

Posted by: Az at November 9, 2009 11:09 PM

True story:
Will and Jada Smith's actual dog, Luigi, lives with Cesar Millan when they are out of town and features prominently on his show "Dog Whisperer".
The more you know!

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at November 9, 2009 11:22 PM

Az:

I think you're forgetting the method. Smith can transform himself for anything. Like the aforementioned dog killing. Or bulking up to play Ali. Or the time he spent years living with a rich Bel Air family with whom he was hilariously mismatched.

Posted by: Daniel Hall at November 9, 2009 11:24 PM

awesome hepl me have another look wait for new work ~~
: ). I can’t be happier.
cheers

Posted by: willamtiger at November 10, 2009 3:52 AM

This post reads like a press release from Smith's production company. Where's the "scathing" that I'd come to love about this site?

Posted by: Nate at November 10, 2009 10:33 AM

I hope he gets that award, I can think of no other actor that is so diverse and talented when it comes to acting in totally different genres.

Posted by: Timothy at November 16, 2009 10:36 PM





Post a comment

 (required)

 (required)


Preview of your comment: