UPDATE: It appears that more Will Smith projects are being put on hold following the slap heard around the world. We reported yesterday that Bad Boys 4 is on hold over at Sony and now Netflix has pumped the brakes on Fast and Loose, a film in which Will Smith was set to play the head of a criminal organization that suffers memory loss. Director David Leitch was attached to helm the project but he stepped down a week before the Oscars debacle. Netflix was scrambling to find a replacement but now there isn’t much of a rush to do so. Smith also had other projects at Netflix, including The Council and Bright 2, but they’re also on hold.
ORIGINAL STORY:
The effects of the Will Smith Oscar slap could be interfering with some of his future endeavors. While Smith resigned from the Academy yesterday in the wake of the incident, one of the star’s biggest upcoming projects appears to be on hold.
According to “The Hollywood Reporter“, Smith had already received a large amount of the script for Bad Boys 4 (about 40 pages), the followup to the successful third installment, Bad Boys For Life. The film is very deep in pre-production but new reports say Sony Pictures is pumping the brakes on the project, at least until they see more of the fallout from Smith’s actions.
Bad Boys 4 was greenlit soon after Bad Boys For Life scored big in January 2020 before COVID-19 shuttered theaters worldwide. The film became the third-highest-grossing January release of all time, the fourth-highest-grossing movie of 2020, and the highest-grossing entry of the franchise with a box office take of $426.5 million worldwide. Sony was more than excited to move ahead with a fourth installment but now everything is in limbo as we wait and see what’s next for Will Smith.
Will Smith also has the AppleTV+ film Emancipation, directed by Antoine Fuqua, set for release this year. The streamer won the distribution rights for a staggering $130 million so I suspect they’re wondering how they’ll approach promoting the film later in the year. Given the film’s premise, focusing on a runaway slave that forges through the swamps of Lousiana on a tortuous journey to escape plantation owners that nearly killed him, the movie seems prime for Oscar season. Can Will Smith really be pushed in a film next Oscar season? I guess only time will tell.
What are YOUR thoughts on Bad Boys 4 being put on hold?