What Happened To The Will Smith Colossus Remake?
When it comes to Hollywood, movies, and remakes, there are always flicks that seem to get started and then never go anywhere. And when you are as famous as Will Smith, well the list of projects that don’t get made will often be much (much) longer than those that end up hitting the big screen. Such is the nature of the game. So we are left to wonder, sort of, what happened with the planned Will Smith Colossus: The Forbin Project that seemed to be in the works not too long ago.
Back in 2013, it sure seemed like the Will Smith Colossus: The Forbin Project remake was going to happen. Imagine Entertainment’s five-year-gestating remake of the 1970 sci-fi thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project had hired Ed Solomon (Men in Black) to rewrite the script. It made sense considering the success he and Will Smith already had together.
Blake Masters (Brotherhood) and Jason Rothenberg (who wrote the pilot for The CW sci-fi series The Hundred) did previous drafts. Ed Solomon, 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. He also penned the illusionist heist movie Now You See Me.
We mention Ed Solomon’s career highlights to that point because it seemed that he might actually make this Will Smith Colossus: The Forbin Project remake worth the trouble. Will Smith, who really didn’t need any hyping whatsoever, would have taken on the role of Dr. Forbin, a mad computer scientist.
Colossus: The Forbin Project was on its face a combination of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey. 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 supercomputers, except for comedy writers. And while that might change with the times, the concept would still definitely work.
The problem with the Will Smith Colossus: The Forbin Project remake is that the news kind of just ends there. It’s been in “development” for over a decade. And will Will Smith’s star taking a massive hit following the Oscar’s Slap incident, it doesn’t look likely to ever get made.
It’s a shame because this would have been another solid sci-fi thriller with clearly more serious tones than some other things Will Smith was doing at the time.
