A year after the Oscars slap that rocked the industry, Will Smith is getting back to work.
The actor has kept a mostly low profile in the year since last year’s ceremony, but is now prepping for his first acting gigs since with the actor reportedly set for a back-to-back shoot of a fourth “Bad Boys” at Sony and action comedy “Fast and Loose” at Netflix.
According to Variety, despite what happened it hasn’t hurt Smith’s bank balance as he remains one of the highest-paid movie stars and is reportedly getting his $25 million-per-film quote for both “Bad Boys 4” and “Fast and Loose”.
This marks a decided shift towards more commercial fare for Smith following both “King Richard” and “Emancipation” which were seen as awards films rather than tentpoles – and in the case of the former was enough to score him the Best Actor Oscar win. “Emancipation” on the other hand failed to earn any Oscar nominations.
“Fast and Loose” follows a crime boss with amnesia who discovers that he has led a double identity as a wealthy kingpin and a broke CIA agent and is unsure which is the real one. David Leitch was originally attached to direct but exited when the project was put on hold in April last year.
Once Sony gave the greenlight for the fourth “Bad Boys” however, movement began again on “Fast and Loose”. Talk of the slap has come up again in recent days with the airing of Chris Rock’s live Netflix comedy special last week and this year’s Oscar ceremony being held on Sunday.
