Jamie Foxx Looming Large In 'Django Unchained'

[Battle]

This is bit off-topic but I just saw Posse the other day and remembered that was another cowboy flick with black folks in the cast where I liked most of the story but was disappointed in some parts. 

As a 12 year old boy seeing his first nudity in a movie theater, this movie will always have a place close to my heart 

You were 12 years old when this movie came out?       Sheeesh!

[JLI Jesse]

This is bit off-topic but I just saw Posse the other day and remembered that was another cowboy flick with black folks in the cast where I liked most of the story but was disappointed in some parts.  

As a 12 year old boy seeing his first nudity in a movie theater, this movie will always have a place close to my heart  

You were 12 years old when this movie came out?       Sheeesh!

Hey, I just turned 30 on Sunday.  I'm ready for file for AARP 

[Battle]

This is bit off-topic but I just saw Posse the other day and remembered that was another cowboy flick with black folks in the cast where I liked most of the story but was disappointed in some parts.  

As a 12 year old boy seeing his first nudity in a movie theater, this movie will always have a place close to my heart  

You were 12 years old when this movie came out?       Sheeesh!

Hey, I just turned 30 on Sunday.  I'm ready for file for AARP  

....but you sound just like a 16 year old with that comment.   30 years old does not qualify you for  AARP.  

[Curtis Metcalf]

Is it that a Hollywood team was turned down by Will Smith because he didn't  want to tarnish his (rather unique)Hollywood box office appeal that's pertinent to this thread?

The relationship to this thread is just the straightforward connection: Jamie Foxx gets this opportunity because Will Smith passed. Time will tell whether that was a smart decision.

The article is more a critique of Hollywood and how Will Smith accurately analyzed the game to create his box office appeal through shrewd choices. It does compare Will Smith to Chris Webber in a way that is interesting but not completely apt to me. (It seems to me that Mr. Smith has always worked hard with intense discipline and focus. The same cannot be said of Mr. Webber.) On the other hand, it does seem clear that Mr. Smith has set his sites on becoming a superstar instead of striving for "greatness" (whatever that might mean in the Hollywood context). That may well be a wise choice on his part.

[JLI Jesse]

This is bit off-topic but I just saw Posse the other day and remembered that was another cowboy flick with black folks in the cast where I liked most of the story but was disappointed in some parts.  

As a 12 year old boy seeing his first nudity in a movie theater, this movie will always have a place close to my heart  

You were 12 years old when this movie came out?       Sheeesh!

Hey, I just turned 30 on Sunday.  I'm ready for file for AARP 

....but you sound just like a 16 year old with that comment.    30 years old does not qualify you for  AARP.   

I know I know.  I think it all has to do with the fact that a lot of my friends are 24.  In their young minds I am ancient.

[Battle]

The relationship to this thread is just the straightforward connection: Jamie Foxx gets this opportunity because Will Smith passed. Time will tell whether that was a smart decision.

The article is more a critique of Hollywood and how Will Smith accurately analyzed the game to create his box office appeal through shrewd choices. It does compare Will Smith to Chris Webber in a way that is interesting but not completely apt to me. (It seems to me that Mr. Smith has always worked hard with intense discipline and focus. The same cannot be said of Mr. Webber.) On the other hand, it does seem clear that Mr. Smith has set his sites on becoming a superstar instead of striving for "greatness" (whatever that might mean in the Hollywood context). That may well be a wise choice on his part.

Ah, you're absolutely right!  Time will tell...
I haven't read the article except for the little excerpt you quoted but Will Smith has been truly fortunate with his movie career where he can actually turn down Hollywood roles rather than accept any offer that comes his way. I'm still in amazement of Will Smith's  immense success in show business. Incredible.  Who would've thought...

You could probably create a Hollywood show called "Would've Could've Should've" following the stars on roles they turned down and the ones that would've been best suited for them.
About Chris Webber:   
Hoping to see Mr. Webber on the next season of "The Game".

[Hypestyle]

...hopefully this will lead to more slave-revenge movies..  Nat Turner?   

[Curtis Metcalf]

I haven't read the article except for the little excerpt you quoted but Will Smith has been truly fortunate with his movie career where he can actually turn down Hollywood roles rather than accept any offer that comes his way. I'm still in amazement of Will Smith's  immense success in show business. Incredible.  Who would've thought...

I think you'll like the article. Among other stuff it covers Will Smith's deliberate strategy for choosing projects based on his analysis of what makes a box office hit. Although he has been kind of risk averse since Six Degrees of Separation, it's hard to argue with the results.

[Reginald Hudlin]

From The Movie Star by Bill Simmons

Just last month, a story circulated around Hollywood that Quentin Tarantino was desperately pursuing Smith as the lead for his next movie, Django Unchained, in which a freed slave teams up with a German bounty hunter to find his wife and ends up killing a bunch of plantation owners along the way.17 Supposedly the script is incredible. Supposedly Smith's agents at CAA and even his manager begged him to play Django. And supposedly, Smith turned it down. He didn't want to risk what he had. He didn't want people to meet Angry Slave Will Smith. He didn't want to mess with a sure thing.

So yeah, Will Smith might be our only movie star right now, but that says more about Hollywood's faults than anything else. Goldman once wrote that, in Hollywood, nobody knows anything. He was wrong. Will Smith figured out where Hollywood was going well before anyone else. These days, it's all about making alien movies, superhero movies and sequels. Will Smith beat everybody there. He could see the future … and the future sucked. You can't call him a failure because he accomplished exactly what he wanted to accomplish. But shouldn't his career have been better? Didn't he have a responsibility to push himself? Isn't that what good actors are supposed to do?

The article is pretty interesting. This is the part pertinent to this thread.

I JUST read this article.  Bill Simmons is a God. 

[Battle]

I think you'll like the article. Among other stuff it covers Will Smith's deliberate strategy for choosing projects based on his analysis of what makes a box office hit. Although he has been kind of risk averse since Six Degrees of Separation, it's hard to argue with the results.

There is no question that there is a deliberate strategy to navigate successful Hollywood movies; I can think of several entertainment entities that  seem to have thier own unique methodology of accomplishing the same goal in Hollywood which is to make a tremendous amount of money in a very short period of time through movie-making but may not be as pertinent to this discussion... ...yet...  In Will Smith's case,  perhaps his team views the whole Hollywood business scene as a card game, a game of probability where his strategy may be in order to increase his chances of winning, he's able to pursuade his Hollywood financiers that increased ticket sales numbers can be linked to how well the audiences responded to how much screen time he's had and the kind of imagery he's projecting in that scene. For example, I remember when Bad Boys came out, I went to go see it because Martin Lawrence was in it and not necessarily for Will Smith. Martin Lawrence was still riding high from his successful television shows and movie appearances (DEF Comedy Jam, Martin, Boomerang) and I wanted to see more of him. I wasn't 100% convinced in Will Smith's capacity to keep my attention in a movie.  After all, I never saw his television show beyond the first episode of 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire' and I had read about his reluctance to 'go all the way' that even he admits that he regrets not giving  the role 100% in his freshman movie, 'Six Degrees of Separation' (I never saw it). I saw Bad Boys  in a San Diego  movie theater and loved it. Saw it twice.  What I remember most from that movie experience was that scene where Will Smith is running towards the camera with his shirt off that triggered cat whistles and cheers from females in the audience. So now, we know that females like seeing Will Smith in a movie with his shirt off.  So, later on in another of Mr. Smith's movie projects  we have 'Enemy Of The State'.  Did this phenomena upstage Martin Lawrence?   Almost...

...but not quite because Martin Lawrence's team had a certain methodology to sell himself in future movie projects, too.
So, yeah... As always, you're correct...  Goldman's article was a good read.

[voodoochild]

Great article.  I remember when there was talk of Will Smith and Steven Spielberg remaking Oldboy.  I remember thinking, "Those are two artists with the skills necessary to pull that film off, but without the cajones to actually do it".  Sure enough, a little later it was announced that they wanted to adapt the original (safer) manga and not remake the raw Korean film version everyone is familiar with.  Somehow I knew two of my favorite artists were gonna find a way to punk out.    Then the whole project just kinda fell apart.  I think Smith's calculating, safe, approach to his career is going to eventually backfire, if it hasn't already.  He's doing Men in Black 3 right now.  Who asked for another sequel to that franchise?  I like the brother, but he's going to need to start stretching out if he wants any kind of longevity in this business.

[Rockscissorspaper]

He's doing Men in Black 3 right now.  Who asked for another sequel to that franchise?

It made tons of dough so of course hollywood is going to make another one. Same thing with Bad Boys and I am Legend. Probably will be a Hancock 2 as well...

[voodoochild]

Actually MIB 2 didnt do that well domestically.  It didnt flop, but it wasnt a box office smash either, which explains the decade long hiatus.  Everyone involved in the original two films needs a hit right now, so they go to a well known brand...even if it is one that the audiences arent really excited about.

Bad Boys 2 didnt exactly light up the box office either, but I cant really see Smith doing a hardcore 'R' rated action film right now.  He needs something to shake up his image, but he's playing things safer now than ever before.  Plus Martin Lawrence is box office poison.  As calculating as Smith is, I don't think he's going to share the marquee with the brother anytime soon.  Added to all of that, Bay is a box office God now with these Transformer movies.  Going back to do another Bad Boys movie seems counter-intuitive.  It'd be like  James Cameron going back to do a sequel to The Abyss. 

There was talk of an I am Legend prequel a couple of years ago, but that project, thankfully, died.

There's a sequel to Hancock being written supposedly.  Hopefully they take a little more time with the script this time because the first one...
 

[BmoreAkuma]

Actually MIB 2 didnt do that well domestically.  It didnt flop, but it wasnt a box office smash either, which explains the decade long hiatus.  Everyone involved in the original two films needs a hit right now, so they go to a well known brand...even if it is one that the audiences arent really excited about.

Bad Boys 2 didnt exactly light up the box office either, but I cant really see Smith doing a hardcore 'R' rated action film right now.  He needs something to shake up his image, but he's playing things safer now than ever before.  Plus Martin Lawrence is box office poison.  As calculating as Smith is, I don't think he's going to share the marquee with the brother anytime soon.  Added to all of that, Bay is a box office God now with these Transformer movies.  Going back to do another Bad Boys movie seems counter-intuitive.  It'd be like  James Cameron going back to do a sequel to The Abyss. 

There was talk of an I am Legend prequel a couple of years ago, but that project, thankfully, died.

There's a sequel to Hancock being written supposedly.  Hopefully they take a little more time with the script this time because the first one...
 

Hades?

But I'll agree that Will Smith is punking out in creating the next big hit. I guess it has something to do with that trash of a film Wild Wild West. As you look at each movie going down the pipeline since that film you see are either sequels or movies that just wasnt that great.

Bad Boys 3? really? Let me guess Mike Lowry marries Marcus' sister. As for MIB 3. Let me guess he is in charge now?

[JLI Jesse]

I JUST read this article.  Bill Simmons is a God. 

You're just getting hip to that 

His articles are always great and I love his podcasts.