Will Smith signs up to hunt down superpowered kids in Brilliance

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Will Smith is going to have trouble finding time to shoot some b-ball outside of school on account of the fact that his Hollywood dance card is overflowing with upcoming projects. In fact, it was just two days ago when Sony Pictures Releasing let fly an official trailer for BAD BOYS FOR LIFE, the long-gestating next chapter of the studio's Bad Boys franchise. With commitments to director Reinaldo Marcus Green's KING RICHARD, BAD BOYS 4, and BRIGHT 2 all on the table, it's a wonder that Smith has any time at all to sign on to another ambitious feature. However, that's precisely what this article is all about, as it's just been announced that Smith will star in a big screen adaptation of Marcus Sakey's Brilliance novel for Paramount Pictures.

The project will see Smith re-teaming with Akiva Goldsman for the pic, with Goldsman in charge of writing the script. Moreover, the duo will also produce with James Lassiter and Shane Salerno. Deadline broke the news about the film earlier today, which you can read a description for below:

"If 1% of the world’s children were born with powerful gifts, how would society adapt to them? The Brilliance novel trilogy is set in a future where non-neurotypical people — demonized by society as “twists” or “abnorms” — are threatening the status quo of the “normal” population with their unique gifts. They are officially labeled as “Brilliants” and are carefully tracked by the government.

Smith will play the book series hero Nick Cooper, a federal agent who works for the Department of Analysis and Response. His job is to track down and terminate criminal abnorms who use their gifts for ill. The agent is himself an abnorm, with a gift for predictive analysis that allows him to see what will happen before it happens and react preemptively. He is also the father of a Brilliant daughter.

As he infiltrates a radical group of Brilliants who plan to incite a civil war, he uses his own gifts against his Brilliant enemies, like an assassin who perceives time faster than his opponents. When Cooper is ordered to hunt down John Smith — the country’s most elusive and most dangerous abnorm — everything Cooper believes in will be called into question. As one of the abnorms he’s hunting tells him, “You can’t stop the future. All you can do is pick a side.” (via Deadline)

Brilliance is the first of three novels written by Sakey for the concept. The sequels, A Better World and Written in Fire are already on shelves and have sold close to 2 million copies to date.

The BRILLIANCE project has been in-the-works for quite sometime. In fact, Smith was considering the project when it was stationed at Legendary/Universal. Eventually, Smith exited the endeavor to instead star in director Peter Landesman's CONCUSSION. In the past, Smith and Goldsman have teamed for three other films, including I, ROBOT, I AM LEGEND and HANDCOCK. All told, the three aforementioned films have grossed and combined total of over $2 billion. With numbers like that it's easy to see why the pair are eager to get back to making films together.