In 2002, Will Smith scooped up the rights to the very loose trilogy of 1970s buddy films starring Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby: A Piece of the Action
, Let's Do It Again
, and Uptown Saturday Night. The plan was for his production company, Overbrook Entertainment to team up with Warner Brothers on a remake of Uptown Saturday Night featuring Smith and the long rumored Denzel Washington. Mark and Rob Cullen(Cop Out
) were brought in to draft a script, and then the project just sort of languished.Now Variety reports that the film is picking up steam again, with Warner Brothers bringing in Tim Dowling(Role Models
) to do a complete rewrite. Dowling most recently co-scripted the Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston comedy, Just Go With It. David Dobkin(Wedding Crashers
) has long been attached to direct. Uptown Saturday Night is one of my favorite comedies ever, and by far the best pairing of Poitier and Cosby. I always dug Cosby back back before the days of Jell-O pudding and ugly plaid sweaters. He and Poitier made for a sweet and salty comedic pair that almost always clicked. I can see some of the same potential in Smith and Denzel, but what if one can't do it? Who would Warner Brothers turn to?
The story tells of two blue collar buddies, who attend a wild party which gets robbed. The next day, Poitier's character finds out that the lottery ticket he bought is the big winner, only to realize that the ticket was in his stolen wallet.
