Los Angeles (AFP)
The television series "The Prince of Bel-Air", which allowed the general public to discover Will Smith in the early 1990s, should have a darker and more dramatic remake, according to the Hollywood trade press on Tuesday.
The idea for this "remake" of the famous sitcom, which should be produced by Will Smith, now a little too old to play the casual teenager, would come from director Morgan Cooper, a big fan of the series, who had - of his own initiative - shot and released a four-minute trailer (of a fictional project) last year.
A "brilliant" idea, commented Will Smith at the time, who hailed this "dramatic version of the 'Prince of Bel-Air' for the new generation".
According to the Hollywood Reporter and Deadline, the project is now being developed by Westbrook Studios, the production house of Will Smith, and Universal TV. It is submitted to several streaming platforms, like Netflix.
The pitch would remain the same: a youngster from the harsh neighborhoods of Philadelphia sent to his uncle and aunt in the upscale Los Angeles suburb of Bel-Air to stay on the right track.
But instead of comedic and colorful 20-minute episodes, it would be sixty-minute, dark and dramatic episodes.
Contacted by AFP, the agents of Will Smith and Morgan Cooper did not respond.
Broadcast between 1990 and 1996, "The Prince of Bel-Air" allowed Will Smith, then a young rapper, to become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
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