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Monday
09Nov2009

Will Smith Taking on 'Flowers for Algernon'?

DateMonday, November 9, 2009 at 11:50PM
Another non-confirmed bit o' casting goodness, which comes to us from Pajiba. How's this strike you: Will Smith to produce and star in an update of Flowers for Algernon? There are a plenty of details here and taken at face value, it's not too hard a story to believe.

According to Pajiba's source, Smiths's Overbrook Entertainment will partner up with Polsky Films and Tracy Nyberg, an associate producer on Hancock and Smith's assistant during the production of I Am Legend to steer this update of the 1959 novel, which won Cliff Robertson the Best Actor trophy in 1969 (that version was called Charly).

It's time to bring Kirk Lazarus into the discussion: Smith shouldn't go "full retard," although the temptation has to be pretty powerful. Big Willie Style would play a mentally retarded man who undergoes experimental surgery to increase his intelligence. It works, by the way: Charlie attains a genius-level IQ, but there's a consequence that comes along with that.

You could make the case that there are plenty of ethical questions about this subject matter, and I don't believe you would see the same novel now, 50 years later. Call it political correctness if you want - although that's inaccurate - but science and medicine have made tremendous advancements in the field of mental health and a catch-all like "retarded" is not applicable in so many more cases these days than would have been acceptable in the past. So, how sympathetic can this film be without crossing what it admittedly an imaginary line?

Not entirely out of nowhere, Pajiba makes the claim that this is Smith gunning for an Oscar. Of course, this isn't news yet, just a rumor. But if I were advising him, I'd say that remaking a role that already won the Academy Award is the absolute wrong way to get one yourself, especially one that, if handled at all the wrong way, could completely backfire.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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