Smith boys get jobs

Well, a nice Smith family double-whammy here: Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (CAN’T HARDLY WAIT) have been recruited to write SISTERS OF MERCY for Columbia Pictures. The project has been tapped as a potential starring vehicle for man of the family, Will Smith. And for little Jaden Smith, a role in the upcoming movie NEWTON’S LAW, playing a precocious inventor trapped in a science center during a field trip.

SISTERS OF MERCY will follow a widower who is ‘saved’ by various members of his wife’s book-club, who begin to advocate their own advice on parenting and dating. I can’t tell if this is to be a touching guy-finds-the-inner-strength kind of movie, or a comedy, but I’m leaning towards the latter, given the writing team and the fact that it has been 2 or so films since he last did one. And that’s 2 more than I’d like, since even though stuff like HITCH are never going to win Oscars, I’m pretty entertained by them. We’ll next see (Will) Smith in I AM LEGEND, which should be spectacular.