The action thriller GEMINI MAN is a project that has been gestating in Hollywood for twenty years now, beginning as a pitch made by Darren Lemke. It has passed through a lot of hands over the years, with Jonathan Hensleigh and David Benioff writing drafts of the script, directors like Tony Scott, Curtis Hanson, and Joe Carnahan being considered to helm it, and the list of hoped-for stars including Harrison Ford, Chris O'Donnell, Mel Gibson, and Clint Eastwood.
GEMINI MAN first caught my attention in 2012, fifteen years into its development hell, when Carnahan uploaded the "sizzle reel" he had put together for his vision of the film. I've embedded that sizzle reel below, and it shows how cool the concept of this film could be if it had been made with Eastwood as the star.
What's the concept? The story is about
an aging assassin who finds himself in a battle with the ultimate opponent: his clone, who is 25 years younger and at the peak of his abilities.
The idea of having an actor battle a younger version of himself is part of why GEMINI MAN has been delayed for so long – when the project was first being put together, the technology didn't exist to properly pull that off. The first option was to have different actors play the character at the different ages (like Ford vs. O'Donnell), but it was decided that having one actor for both parts was the way to go.
That actor may end up being Will Smith. GEMINI MAN is now set up at Skydance with Jerry Bruckheimer producing and Don Murphy executive producing, and it looks like it might finally be ready to move forward into production. Smith is in negotiations to star, while Ang Lee is in talks to direct the film.
The belief is that "the technology now exists to have someone like Smith realistically play two different ages and spar with himself", and given the fact that a superhero movie recently did exactly that, I'd say that technology has definitely caught up with this concept.
A Lee / Smith version of GEMINI MAN should work out quite well, but I have to admit… I'm probably always going to be wishing I had seen the Carnahan / Eastwood version.