There are currently two sequels in the works for Independence Day and Will Smith wants $50 million to reprise his role.
Whether Smith will return to ID4 remains uncertain, but he is in fact starring in M Night Shyamalan’s latest, One Thousand AE, which is being produced by Sony and will start shooting in February.
In fact, according to Variety, Smith is starring with his son Jaden Smith, playing, you guessed it, father and son.
They both crash land on earth a thousand years after all the humans have left, and Jaden has to find help when the crash injures his dad.
In recent years, Shyamalan’s star has faded, thanks to a lot of terrible, half-assed movies that didn’t live up to their initial premise. As we’ve reported here before, it’s very hard to stretch a Twilight Zone style premise out to feature length, and this crashould be a problem here as well, but AE has several things going for it.
Number one, Shyamalan didn’t write AE, it’s been written by Gary Whitta, who also wrote the well received Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington.
Stephen Gaghan, who penned Traffic, also took a pass at the script as well, and the fact that Shyamalan didn’t write it means less possibility of a wobbly premise that won’t pay off at the end. One would assume there’s going to be more people in the movie, but obviously Smith and Son will carry much of the film, although who knows what Jaden will run into when trying to save his dad.
It was also reported on Deadline that Shyamalan signed up with a new talent agency, moving from CAA to WME, so perhaps he’s looking to reinvent himself with this one.
At least it’s not a spooky premise that takes place in Philadelphia, or maybe Will and Jaden will actually land on what used to be Philly a thousand years earlier…
