So Much for that 'Uptown Saturday Night' Remake with Will Smith and Denzel Washington

Lost in Adam McKay's numerous projects, from Anchorman 2 to doing rewrites on Ant-Man, is that he was supposed to have begun work on a remake of the 1974 Sidney Poitier/Bill Cosby crime comedy, Uptown Saturday Night. It even had a powerhouse duo guaranteed to earn some serious $$$ at the box office, with Denzel Washington and Will Smith (!!!!) set to star with a screenplay from Neighbors writer, Nicholas Stoller. But nothing has come of it, and McKay recently revealed to Collider that the promising film has been canned by Warner Bros.

McKay: “In the case of Uptown Saturday Night, that actually isn’t happening. I did a script with Nicholas Stoller and they didn’t quite respond to it. I mean who knows, if they come back with a great script from other writers I could reattach, but for now that doesn’t look like that’s going. So I was happy that I found these other projects because that was one I thought I was doing and it just didn’t quite get there.”

I'm of two minds on this because Uptown Saturday Night, which follows two friends' crazed attempts to retrieve a stolen winning lotto ticket, is a personal favorite that doesn't need to be messed with. But the thought of seeing Denzel and Smith together is something that may never came around again. McKay's next project will instead be his economic crisis drama, The Big Short. 

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Adam McKay to direct 'Uptown Saturday Night' remake, with Denzel Washington and Will Smith

We first wrote about the planned remake of the classic urban comedy, Uptown Saturday Night, back in March of last year. The truth is that the project has been in the works much longer than that. Like for more than a decade. Will Smith has been attached for most of that time, and even though David Dobkin was in line to direct, it never seemed to go anywhere. That is until last year when Timothy Dowling(Role Models) came in to pen the script, and Denzel Washington took over the co-lead role opposite Smith. Will Smith and Denzel Washington together in a remake of a true comedy classic? How awesome is that?

Well it gets better, as Deadline reports that Adam McKay(Anchorman) has taken over as director. McKay, who is currently piecing together Anchorman 2 for his buddy, Will Ferrell, gives this film a serious boost of credibility, and probably star power as well. McKay has been known to corral his celebrity buddies for cameos, and considering the wealth of characters in the film, we're almost guaranteed to see it happen again. The crazy1974 film was directed by and starred Sidney Poitier, who along with his buddy played by Bill Cosby, try to track down the goons who robbed them and stole a winning lottery ticket. Harry Belafonte, Richard Pryor, and Flip Wilson helped fill out a robust cast.

Don't look for this to happen any time soon as McKay, Washington, and Smith have a lot of stuff on their schedules. Maybe in 2014?

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