Will Smith to Produce Thriller The Long Run

When you pre-emptively buy a spec script for a million buckaroos or more, it better be a damn good script. That seems to be the case with “The Long Run” by Stephen Belber (writer on Rescue Me, Law and Order), whose script Columbia has snatched up before any other studio could get a chance to take a peek. With the script now in their grasp, Columbia has given it to Will Smith (pictured, left) to develop, although according to The Hollywood Reporter, Smith is not expected to star, but considering what a fantastic premise this is, he might end up starring anyways. We shall see.

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The script centers on a journalist who helps exonerate a highly charismatic death row inmate of a crime he didn’t commit. When the former inmate is recruited to run for elected office, the journalist leaves his post to orchestrate his rise to political prominence but soon faces a crisis of conscience as he discovers that his friend might be guilty of murder after all.

Now that is a great idea for a movie, don’t you think? This idealistic journalist, crusading for “the little guy”, ends up getting a guilty man off. His world crashes around him until he decides to fix his mistake. But in the end, he fails, and the murderer gets elected. That would be a great ending.