Will Smith in Talks to Play Genie in Aladdin Live-Action Remake

gorfias

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Saelune said:
Either way, I dont think today's Will Smith will be good for this. Men in Black 1 Will Smith? Maybe. But not Smith as he is now. Another positively energetic comedian would be my recommendation. Not sure who though off the top of my head.
And that is a huge problem with a pick like this. Will Smith can be capital g Great. But he is reasonably low energy. And he is supposed to be the replacement for high octane Williams? I don't think so.

Maybe a Chris Tucker type. Though he'd want a $20 million payday to start.
 

Quellist

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09philj said:
Robin Williams was a bad actor who occasionally stumbled onto the set of good movies.
Maybe, maybe not but he's Laurence Olivier compared to Will Smith
 

The Rogue Wolf

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As others have said, the problem is that Smith is a pretty good dramatic/action actor being considered for a comedic role that was defined by one of the best comedians to ever come down the pipe. A straight 1:1 translation of the character is going to be a tough trick to manage, and anything else is going to change the nature of the whole production.
 

Eclipse Dragon

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He won't be Genie, He will be Will Smith playing Genie. Will Smith is one of those actors who only ever plays himself in a movie. Genie's lines will be rewritten to make them sound like they could come out of Will Smith's mouth. It will be like Oscar from Shark Tales.

 

RJ Dalton

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I can see them trying to angle in a slavery aspect, casting a black guy as a genie. Not that this isn't a good angle to go with, I could see that being very well done in the hands of someone who knows what he's doing and knows when and how to hit hard on those kinds of issues . . .
But Disney's not that. Disney has never been that. Disney doesn't have the balls to do it properly.
Or it could just be stunt casting. I don't know.
Either way, fuck all these unnecessary live-action remakes. You're not going to do better than the originals and you're just embarrassing yourselves trying.
 

Zulnam

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Are we starting to take bets for the exact minute when he says "Aw hell no"?

We all know he's gonna say it.
 

Kiall

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Robin Williams was a bad actor who occasionally stumbled onto the set of good movies.
Got to disagree hard with that statement. He's memorable enough for me to rattle off 'What Dreams May Come,' 'Good Will Hunting' and 'Mrs. Doubtfire' even though I haven't seen those films in years. Not just because they were 'good movies he happened to be in' (I actually think 'Dreams' is a little dull and over-wrought in parts) but because of his performance/s.

In Dreams, I felt the melancholy that permenated through his character years after his childrens's deaths and believed he loved his wife enough not to leave Hell without her. Good Will Hunting he delivers at least two great monologues and actually made me believe he was tough in one scene. Mrs. Doubtfire, sure its a silly comedy about a man dressing up as a woman, but people forget the court scenes. This is a man who is bones deep so in love with his children it is litterally impossible for him to stay away from them. Williams takes a silly comedy, with a turn off your brain premise, and actually, somehow, makes it believable. If that's not great acting I don't know what is.
 

Scarim Coral

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As the epic voice guy said it during the honest Adladin trailer, that animated film wouldn't be made if it was made in this present time. So yeah the lived action is going to be controvisial in one way or another.
 

cynicalsaint1

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Will Smith would be a terrible fit.
He doesn't have near the energy to play Genie.
He's way too much the straight man.

Honestly though - even though I'm sure there's someone out there who could pull off a good Genie, there's always going to be a part of me that isn't going to accept it not being Robin Williams.
 

Wintermute_v1legacy

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Scarim Coral said:
As the epic voice guy said it during the honest Adladin trailer, that animated film wouldn't be made if it was made in this present time. So yeah the lived action is going to be controvisial in one way or another.
I've never seen the original. What's the controversy?
 

Scarim Coral

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Wintermute said:
Scarim Coral said:
As the epic voice guy said it during the honest Adladin trailer, that animated film wouldn't be made if it was made in this present time. So yeah the lived action is going to be controvisial in one way or another.
I've never seen the original. What's the controversy?
It's more of an compare and contrast of the past and present.

By all means there is nothing controsival with the original film, well I suppose embedding that trailer will summed it better than I would.
 

MonsterCrit

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Ugh. You know. Animation has come a long way down hill. I mean DIsney is essentially just remaking their animated classics with live actors and really, while competently done. Why? It really doesn't make sense. But then again, when your nearest competition won't look at anything that isn't related to a talking spnge.

Ugh. You know. That's the problem I foresaw when DIsney bought out Pixar. Pixar as an independant could have been the driving force that encouraged DIsney to up its game. Just as the competition with Don Bluth studios was what in part prompted the renaisance.
 

Lieju

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Whyyy.
I have no issue with Disney Live action remakes as such... I think they're unnecessary but eh.
Why Will Smith tho... He's not a good fit. Even when he was younger he would have been more suitable to play Aladdin.


RJ Dalton said:
I can see them trying to angle in a slavery aspect, casting a black guy as a genie. Not that this isn't a good angle to go with, I could see that being very well done in the hands of someone who knows what he's doing and knows when and how to hit hard on those kinds of issues . . .
But Disney's not that. Disney has never been that. Disney doesn't have the balls to do it properly.
Or it could just be stunt casting. I don't know.
That could actually be an interesting approach but it would never be handled well by Disney in this kind of movie. The slavery aspect is already pretty evident in the story tho, casting a black guy is just going to draw parallels to real-world issues in a way that's just going to be awkward if you don't actually focus on handling it well.

(and in any case, even if you want to hire a black actor, surely there are better fits than Will Smith?)
 

dragongit

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Is he capable of acting as anything other then himself?

Genie has always been characterized as being spontaneous and imitating actors.I don't think this will turn out well, if it's true.
 

TrulyBritish

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Wintermute said:
Scarim Coral said:
As the epic voice guy said it during the honest Adladin trailer, that animated film wouldn't be made if it was made in this present time. So yeah the lived action is going to be controvisial in one way or another.
I've never seen the original. What's the controversy?
Some people think a film about ancient Arabia wouldn't be made in this "totally-too-PC" world.
 
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Eh, no thanks. Pass. If you're going to try and keep the same vibe from the genie that the animated film had, Will Smith is a bad choice. Because he is only ever Will Smith. He can be perfectly likeable and charming as Will Smith, but thats all he does. You can't have the same range of improv and impersonations
 

Buizel91

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Gibbagobba said:
Why? Why does this even need to exist? Who is the brain-dead monkey in charge at Disney that keeps green-lighting these terrible, unnecessary remakes? Are they ashamed of being an animation company or something?
Malifecent, Beauty and the Beast and The Jungle Book are hardly "Terrible remakes"

It allows them to keep the copyright to that particular property and keeps them relevant. Some of these films haven't been heard from in 20+ years.
 

Buizel91

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Eclipse Dragon said:
He won't be Genie, He will be Will Smith playing Genie. Will Smith is one of those actors who only ever plays himself in a movie. Genie's lines will be rewritten to make them sound like they could come out of Will Smith's mouth. It will be like Oscar from Shark Tales.

I Don't know, i thought he (and Margot Robbie and the Viola Davis) were the best part of Suicide Squad, he did pretty well.