Will Smith And Men In Black Writer Reteam For Colossus Remake

By Nick Venable | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Colossus

Let’s make it clear right away that the headline is drawing a connection between Will Smith and Men in Black, and as cool as I thought that movie was at the time, I’d much rather dip back into screenwriter Ed Solomon’s career. He’s the man who brought the world Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its oddly wonderful sequel, as well as a bunch of episodes from the meta-before-meta-was-meta It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.. Because I roll like a neurotic in a time-traveling phone booth.

That said, Imagine Entertainment’s five-year-gestating remake of the 1970 sci-fi thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project has hired Solomon to rewrite the script. Previous drafts were done by Blake Masters (Brotherhood) and Jason Rothenberg (who wrote the pilot for the CW’s upcoming sci-fi series The Hundred). Ed Solomon is also the usually non-non-non-heinous writer also co-wrote the goofy-as-shit Mom and Dad Save the World and the underrated Billy Bob Thornton flick, Levity, as well as the upcoming illusionist heist movie Now You See Me. I mention his career again to convince you that he might actually make this remake worth the trouble. Will Smith, who really doesn’t need any hyping whatsoever, will take on the role of Dr. Forbin, mad computer scientist.

Colossus: The Forbin Project was on its face a combination of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey, in that it tells the high-pressure tale of Forbin’s government defense super-computer, which becomes sentient, goes international, and becomes far more dangerous than imagined. Everyone is scared of super-computers, except for comedy writers. And while Will Smith’s career after M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth is up in the air, I’m feeling pretty good about this actually. WARN: THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN COMPROMISED.