Will Smith is still one of the biggest stars in the industry and one of the modern era’s defining blockbuster action heroes, but his track record in the genre that first rocketed him to the top of the A-list has been somewhat spotty across the last few years.
The Suicide Squad made almost $750 million at the box office but was hardly embraced by either fans or critics, while he surprised a lot of people by being the best thing about the otherwise lukewarm Aladdin remake, a far cry from the backlash that first greeted his CGI genie. Bad Boys for Life was a smash hit and return to form, although it came just months after Gemini Man, one of 2019’s biggest bombs that lost a ton of money for Paramount.
There’s plenty of reasons to be excited about Smith’s next actioner, though, which boasts a sky high concept and one of Hollywood’s premiere orchestrators of cinematic carnage behind the camera. Netflix beat out a raft of competitors to secure the rights to Fast & Loose, which has John Wick, Hobbs & Shaw, Deadpool 2 and the upcoming Bullet Train‘s David Leitch set to direct.
The plot follows a man who wakes up in Tijuana with no idea who he is or how he got there. As he pieces together his own life, our protagonist discovers that he lived a double life as both a crime kingpin and an undercover CIA agent, but he’s not sure which one is his true identity, and forces are closing in from all sides representing both parties.
That’s a hell of a hook, and the potential of seeing Will Smith and David Leitch collaborating on a big budget Netflix genre film instantly makes it one of the most exciting projects on the streamer’s docket.