After Will Smith dropped out of Julius Onah’s Brilliance, the studio was left scrambling for a leading man. Now, they seem to have found a replacement in the form of Oscar winning actor Jared Leto, who took home a golden statue earlier this year for his tremendous performance in Dallas Buyers Club.
For those unfamiliar with the project, it will be an adaptation of the Marcus Sakey novel of the same name, and still has Noomi Rapace attached to the female lead role. Scripted by David Koepp, Brilliance will be set in a world where a small part of the population (known as “brilliants”) is born with special abilities. The story focuses on a federal agent who must capture a terrorist (who’s a “brilliant”) that intends on starting a civil war. I haven’t read the novel, but it certainly sounds like an intriguing sci-fi thriller that could really turn into something special, especially with an actor of Leto’s caliber in the lead role.
Though he chose to focus on his music career for several years and disappeared from the film world for a very long time, Jared Leto is a tremendously talented actor who began his comeback in a big way with last year’s Dallas Buyers Club. Now, he’s signed on for another exciting role and the fact that Smith was the one who was set for it originally means that this is likely a project with a lot of potential.
Plus, Leto has been receiving tons of offers over the past few months and has been notoriously picky in choosing his next film. To see that he’s now settled on this one is definitely reassuring. Not that I had any doubts about the project before, but with Rapace and Leto in the lead roles, I definitely think that we’re in for something pretty exciting here.
Tell us, are you happy to hear that Jared Leto will be replacing Will Smith in Brilliance? Or would you have preferred to see someone else in the role? Sound off below!