EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a big one. Will Smith has just committed to star in David Gordon Green-directed action-thriller Supermax, about two FBI agents investigating a murder that’s taken place in the world’s most secure prison.
In a deal pegged in the $70M range, Amazon MGM Studios has this week closed a pact for worldwide rights to the Miramax project, which will mark Smith’s first non-franchise studio movie in recent years. We understand this one will be a streaming play and not a theatrical release.
Additional casting is underway — Smith’s FBI agent partner is a female part — with production set to begin mid-August. Pic is written by David Weil and David J. Rosen, known for their work on the TV series Hunters and Invasion. The Picture Company partners Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman are producing. Will Smith and Adam Fishbach will produce for Smith’s Westbrook. CAA Media Finance brokered the deal.
There was a chance this project made it to the Cannes market but the studio swooped in ahead of time to make sure that didn’t happen. From Amazon, it’s a vote of confidence in the project, but also in Smith. The studio will have noted the strong box office for Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, which came two year after the actor’s damaging Oscars slap incident and is his only film in the past four years.
Gordon Green is coming off a string of successful genre movies, including multiple instalments in the Halloween franchise. This will be his biggest budget movie to date as a filmmaker. He most recently directed Amazon TV series Scarpetta.
Weil and Rosen will also executive-produce, alongside associate producer Natalie Laine Williams. Miramax CEO Jonathan Glickman, President of Film Alexandra Loewy, COO Thom Zadra, and SVP Spencer Ela are attached as executive producers.
There’s plenty of connective tissue here. The Picture Company is currently in production on Supermax co-writer David Weil’s feature directorial debut, the Amazon MGM Studios’ thriller Tyrant, starring Charlize Theron, Julia Garner and Demi Moore. The Complete Unknown outfit also recently landed the Mark Wahlberg-starring action thriller The Operator at Netflix. Supermax reunites Green with co-writer Rosen, who created the Apple TV series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, which Green directed on and executive-produced. Weil is also writing the Evan Gershkovich film for Edward Berger and Chris Hemsworth-starring action film Extraction 3 for Netflix.
Will Smith is repped by CAA, Westbrook, and Sloane, Offer.
