More remake news! According to Film Junk, Will Smith might be looking to remake “Annie”, starring his daughter Willow as the lovable orphan herself.
According to the site, via Variety, Smith is looking to Jay Z to possibly rework the tried-and true Broadway music for the updated film as well as possibly add some new music to the project. I’m not sure if Smith thought of this when venturing to ask Jay Z, but it’s highly ironic that during the beginning of his mainstream career, Jay Z released a song that had a sample from “It’s a Hard Knock Life” in it.
How might this updated version fare against the original? Well, if the updated version of “The Karate Kid” , starring Smith’s son Jaden, is anything to go by, it’ll more than likely be a monetary success and relatively harmless to audiences, making it the perfect family film. And let us not forget that the Smith charm goes a long way with audiences, so genes are working in this film’s favor as well.
For the uninitiated, “Annie” was based on a surprisingly grim comic strip by Harold Gray about an orphan (and her dog) in search of her real parents. She is eventually taken in by a rich businessman named Oliver Warbucks.
Willow Smith as Annie? Um, no. As July, one of the orphans in it maybe, but not as Annie herself. Annie is white, always has been… it's an established thing. And no I'm not racist. I'd have the same issue with anyone casting a white actor to play Martin Luther King Jr. or re-making “The Jefferson's” with a white cast.
“Annie” is my favorite musical and I'm a fan of Willow Smith (a fan of the entire Smith family actually), but I'll skip this movie if they cast her as Annie. Notice Will Smith is behind this, he is apparently the one pushing for it to be made… a movie studio hasn't decided on their own that it's time for another “Annie”. I think this is just another case of Will trying to use his influence to jump start a career for his kids.
Isn't there some other script out there he can try to attach Willow to rather than trying to alter a character established for several decades as white with curly red hair (an almost iconic image)?