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Will Smith has found his next post-Oscar role in Sugar Bandits, a movie that’s been in development for over a decade. It’s based on the 2010 book Devils In Exile written by Chuck Hogan, who’s also writing the script as he did for The Town, also based on one of his books.
Smith, 55, has several projects in the pipeline after winning an Oscar for the 2021 film King Richard, playing the father of Venus and Serena Williams. Of course, at the 2022 ceremony, he famously slapped presenter Chris Rock over a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
That moment has now been thoroughly dissected by Smith, Pinkett Smith and Rock between interviews, memoirs and Rock’s comedy special Selective Outrage. But even though he’s has been banned from the Oscars until 2031, Smith’s career continues with other high-profile projects.
He’s doing the Bad Boys 4 project with Martin Lawrence, reprising their roles as Miami detectives Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett respectively. He’s also confirmed a sequel to I Am Legend with Michael B. Jordan, as previously announced.
Sugar Bandits is about a group of Iraq war veterans who start ripping off drug dealers in Boston while being hunted by both the DEA and the hitmen for another drug crew. Neal Maven is the book’s lead character, so it’s likely Smith is playing him as the announcement said he’d be leading the cast. No word on a director or release date yet.
Sugar Bandits is being pitched to buyers at the European Film Market happening this week. Smith’s last film, Emancipation was done at Apple TV+, directed by Antoine Fuqua. The fictionalized story of the slave known as Whipped Peter, who escaped from the South to fight with the Union Army and was photographed with a pattern of whipped marks on his back, didn’t take with audiences and was called out for its historical inaccuracy.
However, Smith did win an NAACP Image Award for the role.
Will Smith Signs On For Role In Thriller ‘Sugar Bandits’ was originally published on cassiuslife.com
