I gotta say when I first heard about this I was excited. This is one of my favorite movies and to have Will and Denzel in it..I think are perfect IMO.. Check it out.
MTV (c)
Will Smith and Denzel Washington are still very much attached to star in the roles originated by Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby in the 1974 film.
Here's what Dowling revealed about his take on the story:
"Will Smith is producing it. He hired me to write it because he liked the script for 'This Mean's War.' He and Denzel Washington grew up loving the original... It’s been a fun one to write, I just turned it in. We’re all hoping it’s something [Washington] wants do... the funny thing is, Will is so funny but hasn’t done a comedy in a while and Denzel I don’t think has ever done a comedy. I think the pairing would be great... David Dobkin is attached to direct it and hopefully we’ll get that going... The best way to describe it is a 'one crazy night' movie but it's not just one night... Both of the main characters are blue collar guys, one doesn’t get a promotion, one’s business isn’t doing great, they go out for a night and get caught up in something they need to find their way out of. It’s similar in tone to 'The Hangover.' I think it will be really fun."
Things that make you go hmmm, right? Obviously, still not a lot to go on here, so I'll reserve comment till we know more. I do like the emphasis on so-called "blue collar guys" though.
Years ago, Will Smith expressed interest in remaking the Sidney Poitier/Bill Cosby 70s film, Uptown Saturday Night. However, sadly for Smith, and despite sounding like a possible all-star African American Ocean’s Eleven-style romp, very little actually happened on the project since he acquired the rights, even though Smith had reportedly also talked with Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, and Denzel Washington about co-starring.
2 years ago, Warner Bros was on the hunt for a writer to rewrite the most recent draft of the script at the time, which was penned by Cop Out’s Mark and Robb Cullen. It looked like the project would surely happen, and was only a matter of when.
A year later, Warner Bros. and Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment brought on comedy writer Tim Dowling to rewrite the Uptown Saturday Night script, with David Dobkin (who? Oh yeah, the guy who directed Shanghai Knights and Wedding Crashers) attached to direct.
As an aside... seriously though, these jobs really could have gone to a black writer and a black director, couldn't they? If only to keep it somewhat in the spirit that the first trio of films were made - all 3 directed by Sidney Poitier; 2 written by African American playwright Richard Wesley; the other by Charles Blackwell, also African American.
There certainly are a few of them (writers and directors of African descent) who could use the work, and I think do a serviceable job with the project.
It's one of those films that would be sold mainly on its big name stars, and not who's directing or writing it, so why not give a brotha or sistah a shot?
Anyway... so it goes... moving on... obviously the remake will likely diverge from the original storyline.
Of the 3 in the trilogy, the second, Let’s Do It Again, is by far, my favorite! It still very much holds up today.
Stay tuned…
IF you dont know about this.. check it out..
The original is a must watch.. I wonder if they will do the trilogy..
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