Jamie Foxx might join Quvenzhané Wallis in Jay-Z’s Annie remake as “Benjamin Stacks”

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The Will Smith/Jay-Z produced ANNIE remake is slowly but surely moving forward. Quvenzhané Wallis was cast as the title character back in February and now there's news that they may have found their Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks but he'll be going by a different name.

THR has an exclusive that Jamie Foxx is in talks to join ANNIE and he would be playing "Benjamin Stacks", an updated version of the Daddy Warbucks character. Benjamin Stacks…oh, I get it. In the comics and the musicals Daddy Warbucks is a billionaire businessman that ends up taking Annie under his wing and when she gets in trouble he usually shows up at the last moment to save the day. Daddy Warbucks was of course portrayed by Albert Finney in the 1982 film version of ANNIE.

I doubt there's many of you that hold the 1982 version that close to your heart that you're outraged about the musical being updated or the name change. Maybe I'm wrong: are there any hardcore ANNIE fans out there?

*crickets*

Maybe it'll be a decent musical for kids and Jamie Foxx isn't a bad choice to play the Daddy Warbucks persona. Clearly I'm not the target audience for ANNIE and although I don't want the film to be a failure, I have a hard time believing anyone is going to be that excited to see a modernized version of the musical.

ANNIE should start production some time this fall and the film might hit theaters during the holiday season of 2014.