If you’re anything like me your reaction to this news is also… wait, what? Well, it’s true. Will Smith and Joel Edgerton (via TheWrap) are attached to star in Bright – a cop thriller with fantasy elements set in a world where orcs and fairies live among humans, and that features an Orc cop as the main protagonist; presumably not a renegade Orc cop because it’s not spelled with a ‘k’.
The movie will be directed by David Ayer, the man behind the upcoming Suicide Squad, and the script has been written by Max Landis (Chronicle, American Ultra). The two of them seem like really good mix for a decidedly oddball-sounding project like this one to me – Ayer has written and/or directed a number of gritty cop thrillers, including the likes of Training Day, Harsh Times and End of Watch, while Landis has shown a distinct flair for the off-beat in his aforementioned works.
Landis has also shared a page from the script via Twitter :
i'm loving writing this fucking script#bright pic.twitter.com/kF60oWxEa6
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 11, 2015
Am I the only one who’s getting the impression that the unnamed Fogteeth leader sounds an awful lot like the stereotypical Miami Cuban gang leader we all seen over the years, just with a fantasy twist? The whole thing reminds me a bit of the Shadowrun RPG universe which, for those of you unfamiliar it, is a dystopian future setting that mixes cyberpunk with magic and includes all kinds of standard fantasy races like orcs or elves and often ventures into noir detective style adventures. And slap on a coat of Alien Nation paint while you’re at it.
Still, it’s definitely something unique on the movie scene and it’s also something Landis seems quite passionate about:
Bright's title page, which I created before I wrote one word of the script.
So you can imagine how I feel right now. pic.twitter.com/LLSf2QoBv8— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) March 3, 2016
The project is currently still looking for a studio to call home, but Warner Bros. seems to have the inside track as they’re the company on record for the California Film Commission’s tax credit application – this was approved to the tune of a cool $7.2 million – which indicates the film has a rather sizable budget attached to it too.
All-in-all this sounds like a weird yet intriguing project that I definitely want to keep an eye one, what do you think?
Last Updated: March 4, 2016
WernerE
March 4, 2016 at 15:33
Almost sounds like something from a Terry Pratchett’s series.