Will Smith Was Not the First Choice for Gemini Man, Says Producer

Jerry Bruckheimer producer of Gemini Man loves Bollywood films and he tell us how big Indian market is.

Will Smith with Ang Lee and Jerry Bruckheimer.

(Photo Courtesy: Instagram/@ewtakeup)

Jerry Bruckheimer has produced some of the most successful films of all time - Bad Boys, Pirates of the Caribbean, Top Gun, Remember the Titans, among others. This time he is back with Gemini Man which took a good 20 years to make. While speaking to The Quint, Jerry reveals that Will Smith was not the first choice for the film.

Was Will Smith the first choice for Henry?

There were a number of choices for Henry, going way back to Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford. But as time went on, Will became the perfect choice because he’s still very relevant today as he was when he was 23 years old. And we have the reference of him as an action star at 23. And very few other actors have that reference.

When you saw the first clip of how Junior was made, what was your reaction?

I was amazed. I couldn’t believe it. It was natural. We saw it in a scene from Bad Boys, where they took Will and Martin and they replaced one on a wheel shots with a digital head. You couldn’t tell the difference. Seamless.

How do you see India as a market?

Well, they make so many movies over there. Bollywood movies are fantastic. We had the good pleasure to watch a few of movies, just great to watch. I watched a Bollywood movie, can’t tell you the name but it was like a James Bond. It was fairly recent. It was a very action-filled movie. It was really a lot of fun. So they’re great filmmakers over there and I hope some day I get to work there.

We have been seeing all the actors promoting the film. Can you tell us, if there is any particular reason that we don’t see the female actor who is in the film?

Yes, there is a very good reason. She’s in Bangkok shooting another movie, unfortunately. So we couldn’t get her back.

Editor: Ashish Maccune