What is Will Smith and Michael Mann’s Empire?

The film “Empire”, supposedly the next collaboration between Will Smith and Michael Mann since “Ali”, is a mystery to everyone, except that it is supposedly about a media mogul. CHUD recently got Will Smith to talk a little more about the movie. Well, not really. Smith did mention the movie, but he didn’t say anything to expand on the idea behind “Empire”, mostly because there isn’t really anything solid there yet.

From CHUD:

Q: Will, you’ve mentioned Michael Mann a few times. It was recently announced that you might be collaborating with him again on Empire, where it sounds like you might be playing a Rupert Murdoch kind of media mogul or Charles Foster Kane maybe. I’m wondering if you could talk about what that’s going to be. They didn’t give away too many details in Variety.

Will Smith: There’s not a lot of details yet. It’s just something we’ve been considering. It’s an idea. Richard III is the model that we’re working off of in that media world, but it’s just ideas right now. There’s not a lot to talk about right now.

But my cinematic education really reached a critical mass in working with Michael Mann. Something happened, something clicked… and I feel like over the next ten years, I will make the best movies of my career. I feel like an athlete, and I just caught my prime. I’m in the best physical condition of my life; I’m mentally prepared, and love what I do. I feel like this is truly the time for me to make my artistic sprint in my career.

So even Smith has no idea what they’re going to be doing with “Empire”, but he definitely wants to do it. The idea behind it, from what little is mentioned, seems to be an epic drama.