Over the years, Will Smith has made a bunch of movies with producer, writer and director Akiva Goldsman: there was 2004’s I, Robot, where Smith played a robot cop; 2008’s Hancock, where he played an asshole superhero; and I Am Legend, where he played the last man on Earth. Clearly, our current reigning genie has a fondness for genre stuff (remember Bright? I hope not), particularly stories where he gets to be at the center of the action.
Now, Smith and Goldsman are teaming up again, according to Deadline. This time, they’re tackling Brilliance, Marcus Sakey’s 2013 novel about a world where 1% of the world is born with special abilities. Officially labeled “brilliants” by the government, these people are more commonly called “twists” or “abnorms” by the rest of the world, which doesn’t trust them. It all kind of sounds like X-Men, only don’t talk about that, because this is an original work that sprung fully formed from Sakey’s mind and I’ll hear no different.
Anyway, Smith will play Nick Cooper, a federal agent charged with tracking down criminal Brilliants who are using their powers for evil. His power? He has “a gift for predictive analysis.” Basically he’s a precog who can see things before they happen. He also has a Brilliant daughter.
The plot thickens as Cooper infiltrates a Brilliant organization bent on inciting a civil war, he sees who the real enemies are, he questions his worldview, etc and so forth. It sounds like the right combination of meaty role and pulpy sci-fi story that has served Smith and Goldsman well in the past.
Goldsman will be writing the script for the movie. If it does well, we could be getting more Brilliance movies, since Sakey has already published the other two novels in the trilogy. Apparently, Smith has wanted to make this particular movie for a while, and actually had to pull out to make 2015’s Concussion. Passion project: engage.
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