It's one thing to be a young actress and deliver a performance that gets noticed. It's quite another to get an Oscar nomination for your efforts, but Quvenzhané Wallis has been turning heads all through 2012 with her electric turn in "Beasts of the Southern Wild." And while the actress has since taken a small role in Steve McQueen's "Twelve Years a Slave," she may be quickly boosting herself up into blockbuster territory.
EW reports that Wallis is "in consideration" for the lead role of the brewing "Annie" remake, which recently nabbed "Easy A" director Will Gluck to direct. The new version of the musical that was previously turned into a hit 1982 movie, will be contemporary instead of set during the Great Depression, but that's all the details there are for now. But with both Will Smith and Jay-Z combining their Voltron-like producing powers, this one is gonna be big no matter how you slice it, and it would be quite a leap up for Wallis if she lands the part.
But what happened to the previously rumored Willow Smith? Well, it turns out she wasn't keen on the pressure. “Willow was supposed to be doing Annie, we got Jay-Z to do the movie, go the studio to come in and Willow had such a difficult time on tour with ‘Whip my Hair’ and she said, ‘You know Daddy,’ I don’t think so,” Big Willie recently told Temple University, adding that she also told him, “I have a better idea, how about I just be 12.”
Now, whether the newbie Wallis will be able to wrangle similar expectations is a big question, but we do have to say, it's not one of the worst ideas we've heard. If this movie has to be made, might as well get someone who is relatively fresh faced and untapped to bring some energy to the proceedings than some Disney-bot child star. And with the movie aiming for a fall 2014 release, we'd imagine Wallis won't be the last name rumored until a decision is made.
J…sus, the movie's not even made yet and already a race war is brewing with the comments below! The article says very clearly: " with both Will Smith and Jay-Z combining their Voltron-like producing powers, this one is gonna be big no matter how you slice it". And it's also going to be updated. Which leads me to believe it will most likely be an all black version without the "minstrel show" implications. My only hope is that in contemporizing it they will not hip hop it and stick to the original score as was written for Broadway, whether Tomorrow is an irritating earwig of a song or not. And I'm so glad Willow Smith is not going to be in this. I think that Will & Jada's kids represent the worst of obnoxious bratty American child stars.
Is there any song in the entire history of Broadway more irritating than "Tomorrow?" Sure, there are a lot of strong contenders, but I don't think any song quite out-annoys "Tomorrow." I hope this film is never made. I don't want more youth corrupted by this horrible musical.
So if this happens, in one corner we'll have the people who aren't, like, RACIST or nuthin', they just find the concept of a black girl playing the role WRONG WRONG WRONG NO GROSS UGH for reasons they can't articulate, and in the other, we'll have people who are freaking out over the unfortunate implications of a musical about a little black girl who's saved from poverty by an old, rich white dude and thanks him by entertaining everyone with her dancing and singing.