FOCUS: Will Smith Replaces Ben Affleck and Kristen Stewart in Con Film

Ben Affleck and Kristen Stewart are out of Focus, Will Smith is in. Will Smith will be replacing both Ben Affleck and Kristen Stewart in Focus, a Glenn Ficarra and John Requa directed film. Ben Affleck is committed to directing his next film Live by Night so he had to drop out of Focus. “Kristen Stewart was attached to also star in [Focus] but when Smith became engaged in the project, Stewart fell off with the feeling that the age difference between the two would be too large a gap.”

I would think that most actresses, young or old, would see acting beside Will Smith as an opportunity not a hindrance but then I have not read the script for the film.

Focus, written by “Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love) is about…a veteran con man gets involved with a newcomer to the grifter business. They get involved romantically but that becomes perilous in a business where they lie and cheat for a living. The complications of the encounter haunt them when they meet up again in the future.”

On the history of Focus:

Ficarra and Requa brought [Warner Bros.] the script early last year. The original idea was to reteam  “Crazy Stupid Love” co-stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone for the leads, but when Gosling’s schedule could not be worked out, Warners began looking at other candidates.

Sources say the studio loves the script but knew it would be tough to greenlight without a top-tier actor, so it began courting leads such as Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck. Affleck came close but earlier commitments got in the way.

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Source: Slashfilm, Variety