Will Smith Chases Awards With ‘King Richard’

Will Smith has been looking to solidify his legacy with an Oscar since 2006’s “The Pursuit of Happyness,” and his latest shot just scored a prime 2020 release date.

“King Richard,” a biopic featuring Smith as the father and coach of tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams, Richard Williams, will be released by Warner Bros. on Nov. 25, 2020, per Deadline, a prime date to launch Smith into the best actor conversation. Joining Smith on the project is director Reinaldo Marcus Green. Green is coming off his biggest success yet as a filmmaker, 2018’s police brutality drama “Monsters and Men,” which starred John David Washington (“BlacKkKlansman”).

“King Richard” will tell the story of how Williams overcame hardships and a harsh past to raise two of the greatest tennis players of all time, despite he himself having no background in the sport. Drawing up a meticulous plan for their careers early on, Williams began training his daughters around the age of four on the disheveled courts of Compton, setting them on a path to dominate the sport as adults.

Newcomer Zach Baylin’s script for the film began making waves when it was featured on the 2018 Black List, an annual list of the best-unproduced scripts in Hollywood as decided by a survey of development executives. Warner Bros. won a heated bidding war for the script back in March.

Since 2005, around 1,000 scripts have been featured on the Black List. These include best picture winners like “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Argo,” and “Spotlight,” as well as recent hits like “Hell or High Water” and “I, Tonya.” It’s not all success and acclaim, however, as the list has also featured such duds as “All About Steve,” “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” and “47 Ronin” over the years.

Smith was most recently seen reprising Robin Williams’s role of the Genie in Disney and Guy Ritchie’s live-action “Aladdin,” which has made over $600 million worldwide at the time of writing. He will next be seen in Ang Lee’s cloned-hitman sci-fi drama, “Gemini Man,” in October, and is slated to return for a sequel to “Bright” for Netflix.

Warner Bros. will release "King Richard" on Nov. 25, 2020.