Whenever you think about Will Smith’s career, a number of diverse projects will inevitably come to mind. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Independence Day. The Men in Black series. I Am Legend.
Sure, he’s starred in plenty of regular big blockbusters, but it’s definitely a trip to note how much sci-fi he’s done in his career, not to mention he’s got Men in Black 3, and the upcoming After Earth as well.
As Smith told Collider, “I would say the most impact a movie has ever had on me is Star Wars. Star Wars changed my life and really shaped how I wanted to create. Part of my affinity for sci-fi, even this Men in Black series, is about Star Wars. It just changed how I thought about the world. The walls shattered around my imagination.”
Smith told Movieline he discovered Star Wars and rap when he was ten years old, and both clearly shaped the direction of his life.
Yet he also told the Urban Daily as far as Men in Black 3 that African-Americans aren’t always into time travel stories. “For black people going back isn’t the best direction,” Smith said. “You don’t want to be black in 1409… you want to be black today.”
In addition to coming back to the big screen for the first time in four years with Men In Black 3, Smith also just wrapped the next M Night Shyamalan film, which will be a big test to see if the director of The Sixth Sense still can bring in audiences today.
Both Smith and his son Jaden star in the film, and it’s certainly an intriguing story concept. A thousand years in the future, Smith and Son crash land on earth. Senior Smith is injured, which leaves his young son to try and get help, not knowing what could be waiting for him.
And as Smith told Movieline, he tells young Jaden, “Son, I’m going to teach you everything I know – and if you work hard, you can be the second biggest movie star in the world.”
