The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Sony’s Bad Boys 4* and Netflix’s Fast and Loose, two of Will Smith’s most high-profile projects, had been put on hold. Smith resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences the day before the announcement, following his horrific face-slap of Chris Rock during last week’s Oscar ceremony. So, are studios discarding one of Hollywood’s greatest actors, one who just won an Oscar for Best Actor (which, for better or worse, drew a standing ovation 45 minutes later) like a hot potato?
Maybe, and it’s certainly a horrible image in terms of “cancelled” stars having different standards. Smith is dumped on the same weekend that Ezra Miller’s Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is slated to debut (only days after the young actor was arrested for disorderly conduct in Hawaii) and on the same weekend that Marilyn Manson and Louis C.K. were both nominated for or won Grammys. In the grand scheme of things, a slap in the face in response to an arguable “offensive” joke is a minor incident, especially given that the only reason it’s such a big deal is that A) Smith has a 30-year reputation for being a proverbial Mickey Mouse in terms of fame and temperament, and B) it occurred during a globally televised Oscar telecast.
However, the simplest answer may be the correct one right now. At any one time, every studio has a large number of films in various stages of development. One movie is created for every ten that you hear about online, and even seemingly likely projects (like a third Bad Boys film, which will be released in early 2020, some 17 years after Bad Boys II) can face different setbacks on their path to cinemas (or, in 2022, a streaming platform). So, just though two high-profile projects have been deprioritized, it doesn’t imply Smith will never return to this town. It just means that, for the time being, everyone is taking a breather.
No studio wants to be the fourth to spend big money on a blockbuster only to discover that, yes, the Oscar event has changed how much people want to see Will Smith onscreen, even in otherwise safe franchise movies. Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible III was the first major release following the tumultuous publicity tour for War of the Worlds (a picture that made $232 million domestically, a personal high for the actor, and $600 million globally in summer 2005). The third Mission: Impossible film was predicted to gross similar amounts to Mission: Impossible (which grossed $457 million in 1996) and Mission: Impossible II (which grossed $543 million in 2000).
Smith isn’t required to work, and Netflix isn’t dependent on whether Fast and Furious is released this year or next. We waited 17 years for a Bad Boys for Life that was shockingly fantastic. We’ll have to wait a few months to determine if a fourth instalment is in anyone’s best interests. After 25 years of butts-in-seats bankability, I believe it would be a business (and cultural) disaster for the actor/producer to suddenly become a persona non grata. While I believe he’ll follow Tom Cruise’s lead and spend the rest of his days reaffirming his bankability in sci-fi/action films, it’s only been a week.
