During the '60s and '70s, you could make a television series about anything. Love boats. Planets where apes ruled the world. Incredible hulks. One of these shows was called Gemini Man, and revolved around a secret agent (Ben Murphy) who could turn himself invisible. It was pretty good, even if it only lasted eleven episodes.
Ang Lee's next movie - also called Gemini Man - has nothing to do with that series, but you should still totally seek it out and watch it. Instead, it's about an assassin (Will Smith) who's forced to face off against a clone of his younger, stronger, more deadly self. Talk about existential moments in an actor's career.
Gemini Man has been kicking around Hollywood for a while now - in '97 Tony Scott was considering making it with Denzel Washington - but producers were waiting for the SFX technology to improve so they could pull off two versions of the same movie star, at different ages, in the same scene. Now that Marvel's MCU has proven that you can really do wonders with de-aging techniques (as Michael Douglas in Ant-Man and Kurt Russell in GOTG Vol. 2 showed), it seems that Lee is ready to take that tech to the next logical step.
Joining Smith is Clive Owen (Children of Men), whose role has yet to be specified outside of being one of the antagonists. Lee is also reportedly meeting with Tatiana Maslany, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Elizabeth Debicki for the female lead in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for an update on that.
Jerry Bruckheimer is producing Gemini Man, and the screenplay has undergone various rewrites over the last twenty years, with scribes ranging from David Benioff (Game of Thrones) to Brian Helgeland (Man On Fire) taking a crack at it. The fact that it's attracted this level of talent makes you wonder if all those cooks in the kitchen actually added some spice to the final meal, as one can't imagine Lee signing on to any old schlock. In case you're wondering, yes I am a massive fan of his Hulk movie and Life of Pi, so seeing him helm another spectacle picture sounds gravy.
Gemini Man is slated to hit theaters October 4, 2019. We'll keep you in the loop whenever it feels right.