Update: Cannes juror Will Smith is now in talks to star in the feature, according to THR.
Riding off the success of Life of Pi, Ang Lee was able to explore his predilection for technology with Bill Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, and while that high frame-rate experiment didn’t connect with audiences, it thankfully hasn’t take long for another project to get off the ground.
According to THR, he’s in talks to direct the action thriller Gemini Man for Skydance Media. A long-gestating project in Hollywood, it dates back to two decades prior with Curtis Hanson and Mel Gibson previously attached, along with Brian Helgeland, Andrew Niccol and David Benioff all having a hand in the script. The story following an assassin who is out of his prime, but is tasked with fighting his own clone, one that is 25 years younger.
With the project needing the technology to realistically portray an actor and his generation-younger iteration, it’s taken awhile to get off the ground, but thanks to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, as well as Rogue One and Civil War recently, not to mention Scorsese’s upcoming The Irishman, it looks like the visual effects may be in order.
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Joe Carnahan actually created a sizzle reel for his pitch a few years back, hoping it could star Clint Eastwood, and that can be seen below as we await updates on Lee’s version.