Here’s a pairing I never expected to see. Deadline reports Will Smith is set to star in Supermax, an action-thriller directed by David Gordon Green. Amazon MGM Studios picked up the rights, roughly in the $70M range, and will send the flick straight to Prime Video rather than to theaters.
Supermax centers on two FBI agents investigating a murder in the world’s most secure prison. The screenplay is by David Weil and David J. Rosen, who have worked with Amazon/MGM on the hit shows Hunters and Citadel.
The search is on for Smith’s co-star, who will play the female agent on the case. Plans are for production to begin in August.
Ever since the infamous slap heard around the world, Smith has mostly stuck to franchise stuff like Bad Boys: Ride or Die. Supermax will mark his first non-franchise role since Emancipation in 2022. He won an Oscar for that same year for his performance in King Richard.
Green’s directorial persona remains a fluid thing. He began as an indie darling with films such as George Washington and All the Real Girls, then morphed into stoner comedy with Pineapple Express and Your Highness. Eventually, he became a horror maestro for Blumhouse with a trilogy of Halloween films, but following The Exorcist: Believer he seems to be reinventing himself again. He last directed the Hulu comedy Nutcrackers starring Ben Stiller.
