Advertisement


 

Will Smith Uncancelled?


Jan 20, 2023


New Thinking Total Hollywood podcast

Series streaming on:

Apple Podcasts Spotify Amazon Music

Will Smith photo by Max Morse for TechCrunch, Remixed by Anders Lagerstedt



Your host:

Sandro Monetti

Author and multi-award winning Hollywood journalist


“Will Smith said filming the movie Emancipation elevated him as a human being – and yet he still slapped Chris Rock!”

Can Will Smith mount a successful comeback after slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars? On the eve of the 2023 nominations, who will succeed him as this year’s Best Actor winner? And is the new Tom Hanks movie worth seeing? These questions and more are debated and decided by your co-hosts, Hollywood insiders Sandro Monetti and Zorianna Kit.

This first episode of a show which takes you behind the velvet rope of Tinseltown opens with a report from the Los Angeles premiere of Will Smith’s latest film, Emancipation, a drama aiming to be part of the Oscar conversation even though its star is banned from the ceremony for the next ten years. Is Hollywood ready to embrace Smith again and move on from the slap heard around the world?

The actor frontrunners for Oscar glory this time look to be Brendan Fraser, Austin Butler and Colin Farrell but Sandro and Zorianna have differing opinions over who deserves the statue.

Are you sick of all the reboots and remakes in Hollywood? Zorianna seems to be but Sandro points out these safe bets make smart business sense at an uncertain time for the industry.

Each episode ends with a review of a recent release and this time it’s the new Tom Hanks film, A Man Called Otto. Can the nice guy actor convince playing the grumpiest man in America?


In this episode we discuss:
  • Is Hollywood yet ready or willing to welcome back Will Smith?
  • Learn what Will Smith said at the premiere about how new movie Emancipation changed him as a human being.
  • Will Brendan Fraser’s compelling comeback story propel him to win the best actor Oscar for The Whale?
  • Or will rising star Austin Butler take the trophy for his performance as Elvis Presley?
  • Can Colin Farrell crown his roller coaster career with a first Oscar?
  • Is Sandro right in calling most Darren Aronofsky films “an exercise in misery?”
  • Why is Hollywood so obsessed with remakes and reboots?
  • How soon is too soon for a hit movie or TV show to be remade?
  • The new Tom Hanks film A Man Called Otto is formulaic but with star power like this, does it matter?
  • Nice guy Tom Hanks plays America’s grumpiest man in his new film – does it work?


Tags mentioned: