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Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool.
I don’t think anyone who watched The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air during the ’90s thought that Will Smith was destined to become an Oscar winner, let alone nominee. Sure, he had the potential to be successful in th film industry, but he did not seem to be following the Sidney Poitier route in terms of his career. And then BAM he gets recognized for dramatic performances in Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness. Suddenly he chooses to star in movies as heady as Seven Pounds, and decides to add some emotional weight to a surprisingly moody genre films (Hancock and I Am Legend). There was even a solid rumor that he would star in a Steven Spielberg-directed remake of Oldboy, a violent, bloody and atmospheric thriller from South Korea.
The Fresh Prince is punking us yet again with the announcement that he wants to produce a new version of Daniel Keyes’ novel Flowers for Algernon:
The story follows a mentally handicapped man who undergoes an experimental procedure that increases his intelligence until he reaches genius level, only to then find himself a social outcast. Ultimately he learns that the experiment’s origin, the titular mouse, is deteriorating.
Sounds exciting, non? It also sounds like another go at nabbing an Academy Award. And the mentally challenged have always done well come Oscar time (just ask Sean Penn or Cliff Robertson, who actually won the award the last time this book was turned into a movie). So yes, this bodes well for Smith. But is that really how we want to watch him? Granted, he will probably more Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump than Cuba Gooding Jr. in Radio, yet that still doesn’t make me want to see the film. I want to see Will Smith be charismatic and funny; you know, like Will Smith. Not that his penchant for drama is a bad thing, it’s just that Algernon is the epitome of showy emotions.
And that’s just not Big Willy’s style.
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