Paramount Pictures have signed Will Smith to produce and star in a movie adaptation of Marcus Sakey’s dystopian trilogy Brilliance. Akiva Goldsman will write the script and produce with James Lassiter and Shane Salerno. Brilliance will be a co-production between Goldsman’s Weed Road, Smith’s Westbrook and Overbrook and Salerno’s the Story Factory.
The story is set in a world where 1% of the children are born with powerful intellectual gifts and demonized by society. A director is not yet on board. Smith starred in Aladdin and will next be seen in Ang Lee’s sci-fi thriller Gemini Man, which is set for release on October 11.