Will Smith Cast in Ridley Scott's Football Concussion Film
Will Smith is set to star in the untitled Ridley Scott-produced football drama that revolves around the deadly effects of concussions in the NFL. Parkland director Peter Landesman is on board to write and direct the picture.
The movie is based on a GQ article titled “Game Brain” written by Jeanne Marie Laskas, and according to Variety the story follows "Dr. Bennet Omalu, played by Smith, the forensic neuropathologist who single-handedly made the first discovery of CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy] in a professional football player and brought awareness to the public."
When the project was first announced, we learned that "Scott wants to create a drama focusing on the debilitating effects that concussions are having on our sports heroes, and the role that league owners play in allowing it to happen. His plan is to create a morality tale on that issue, much the way that Michael Mann’s The Insider took on the tobacco industry’s complicity in covering up the addictive and cancer-causing effects of cigarette smoking."
Smith recently dropped out of Legendary Picture's film project Brilliance, and according to the report the reason Smith left the film was so that he could take on this one. Smith has always been a solid actor, except for that one time he starred in M. Night Shyamalan's After Earth. This new movie should be a great project for him to be a part of. There might be some award potential in it.