Nick Fury Of Bel-Air??

Hey guys, it's Donnie...IGN is reporting that Marvel Studios "may be in talks" with Will Smith to play the title role in the big screen adaptation of Nick Fury. So in other words, there could be absolutely no truth to this rumor whatsoever, but what the hell, it's an interesting idea to mull over...

I'm sure alot of fan boy types will start bitching and complaining but, look...if I'm Avi Arad, then this move makes complete and total sense. First of all, your new "Ultimates" series of books has remade Fury into a black man, so you're not totally straying from the source material. Secondly, we've yet to see a really great black superhero film, so you've got an entire market out there ripe for the picking. Thirdly, Nick Fury...he's not exactly a top-tier comic character. In fact, one could make the argument that he's not even really a second tier character, although personally I would disagree.

And finally, Nick Fury is on what I like to call The Short List; the list of 10 properties Marvel pitched to get the money from Merrill Lynch to start producing their own films. (I call it The Short List because if they don't hit a few homeruns early on, aka if they screw up Captain America, the list is going to get a whole lot shorter.) So you've got quite a bit of pressure to produce a financial success with a character without a large built-in fan base. Of course you go to Will Smith. The guy has one of the most impressive box office records in the last ten years. Even if the movie's only mediocre, the guy almost always turns a profit at the box office. Hitch? I rest my case.

Besides, if we get Ali-Will-Smith, then he could be a great Nick Fury. He certainly couldn't be worse than David Hasselhoff...