Will Smith and Denzel Washington Remaking "Uptown Saturday Night"?

By our guest blogger, Matt Jussim

Back in 2002, Will Smith’s production company bought the rights to Sidney Poitier's “Uptown Saturday Night” with plans to do an all-star African-American update on the 1974 classic. Almost a decade later, the remake is in motion again, according to Pajiba.com.

According to Pajiba: Since 2002, when Smith bought the rights, the project has basically been inactive. That is, until the middle of December, when Warner Brothers and Overbrook not only put the project back in motion--by putting out a call for a rewrite on an original script from Mark and Robb Cullen (Cop Out)--but by also attaching a name that hadn’t been mentioned in relation to the project yet: Denzel Washington.

In 2002, Smith had said he’d spoken to Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence about the possibility of starring, but this time around though, Washington is set to co-star with Smith himself.

In the original film, Cosby and Poitier play old buddies who are robbed during a nightclub hold-up and must solve the case in order to get back a winning lottery ticket that's in Cosby's wallet. The film also starred Richard Pryor, Harry Belefonte, Flip Wilson and Calvin Lockhart.

Pajiba also said that for the time being, “Wedding Crashers” director David Dobkin is attached to helm the remake.

The pairing of Smith and Washington just seems like it’s too good to be true. Having two actors of that caliber in the same picture would just be too tempting to miss. I hope this project keeps moving in the right direction.