Will Smith Joining Ron Howard's “The Forbin Project”

More than three years after it was announced that Brian Grazer would be producing a Ron Howard directed remake of a '60s sci-fi thriller, the film finally has  a star.

Wil Smith will once again confront a dystopian nightmare, this time in "The Forbin Project," a retooling of the seminal-if-somewhat cheesy "Colossus: The Forbin Project."

The film, based on the DF Jones novel "Colossus," tells the story of a supercomputer designed by Dr. Charles Forbin that realizes that humans are unfit to manage their own affairs and decides that he must take control of the world. Forty years later it 's a common sci-fi trope that helped pave the way for "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Terminator" and "War Games" among countless others.

Smith has already redone the Charlton Heston classic "The Omega Man" as "I AM Legend," and before that starred in "I, Robot," so these technology-run-amok scenarios are old hat for him. What Ron Howard is doing on such a film is beyond us.

The original film starred Eric Braeden, best known for his 30 years on "The Young and The Restless," and Susan Clark, best known as Emmanuel Lewis' mom on "Webster."

The new script is being written by Jason Rothenberg, who's having quite a week, as he has also been hired to write a script for a new "Twilight Zone."

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