WILL SMITH IS BACK IN THE ´HOOD

WILL SMITH IS BACK IN THE ´HOOD

by Norman Warwick

Willard Carroll Smith, Jr. is the real name of the better-known Will Smith, American actor, rapper, film producer, television producer and record producer. Will Smith has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, and has won four Grammy Awards.

In the late nineteen eighties that he achieved modest fame as a rapper, with the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his fame increased dramatically, when he starred in the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which was broadcast over several series for more than half a decade (1990-1996) on NBC and has been broadcast permanently on various networks in the UK. In the mid-nineties Smith stepped from television to film, and appeared in numerous films that achieved great box office success. He also received a special award for his contribution to music within film at the 2007 Main Awards Gala.

He has appeared in eight films that have generated more than $100 million at us box office, and in turn, have reached number one in its release.

His most financially successful films have been the Two Rebel Cops movies, Independence Day, the Men In Black trilogy, I  Robot, I Am Legend, In Search Of Happiness, Hancock, Wild West, Public Enemy, The Scarecrow,  Hitch, Seven Souls, Suicide Squad and After Earth. 

He also received critical acclaim for his performances in Ali and Six Degrees Of Separation. In 2013, he acquired the rights to the United States of the Spanish television program El hormiguero, presented by Pablo Motos.

 Forbes financial magazine at one time considered Smith to be the most fundable star in the world, despite the box office and critical disappointment of his 2013 film, After Earth. After all, though, of the twenty fictional films he has appeared in worldwide, sixteen have amassed profits of more than $100 million each, and five of them earned more than $500 million from global box office revenue. By 2014, his films had already grossed $600 million at the global box office. ​

I don´t remember being aware of this at the time, but allegedly, by the time the filming of The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air had come to a close, Will Smith and Jane Hubert, who played his character´s tough, but loving Aunt Viv were no longer on speaking terms.

Nevertheless, the reunion that nobody ever expected to happen seems to actually happening. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and his house-proud Aunt have reportedly buries the hatchet. The HBO Max company is planning a Fresh Prince reunion special to air later this year and on Thursday (September 10), Smith posted two behind-the-scenes pictures, as if to confirm that something really is happening.

The first shot featured the cast on set of the old Banks Mansion, with Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton), Daphne Maxwell Reid (Aunt Viv No.2), DJ Jazzy Jeff (Jazz), Tatyana Ali (Ashley), Karyn Parsons (Hilary) and Joseph Marcell (Geoffrey) all taking part. James Avery – aka Uncle Phil, Aunt Viv´s husband, and a very strong character – died in 2013.

 – even cooler – the second image Smith shared was of just him and original Aunt Viv Janet Hubert, sitting down on camera together for the first time in 27 years.

Via social media, reassuring posts were emitted.

“Today is exactly 30 YEARS since The @FreshPrince of Bel-Air debuted! So we’re doin’ something for y’all… a for real Banks Family Reunion is comin’ soon to @HBOmax!´ Smith captioned the photos.

Despite my ignorance of the fact, it is apparently widely known that Hubert (seen below in character with Will Smith) has had a long-standing feud with Smith and their on-set issues caused her early exit from the show. She played Aunt Viv in the first three seasons before leaving in 1993.

Hubert wrote about her broken relationship with Smith in her 2009 book Perfection Is Not A Sitcom Mom. That year, she complained that she was “demonised” following her departure, and in 2017, she criticised the cast after being snubbed from a reunion. So, the picture above of Smith and Hubert is a pretty big deal and it looks like the pair have finally made peace!

Will Smith was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, for the film Ali, in 2001, for his portrayal of boxer Muhammad Ali, formerly known as Cassius Clay, in a biographical film. He was again nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in another film based on real events, In Search of Happiness, where he played Chris Gardner. 

His portrayal of Ali was massively acclaimed for its capture of Ali´s magnetic personality, and I loved the heroic saviour of the world he was in Independence Day as he took on roles far removed from the sassy downtown wise-cracker (albeit with a heart of gold) who was The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air.

Sidetrtacks & Detours are very grateful to the on line site Paste for announcing all the above information, and we look forward to picking up on official scheduling times both in the States and in the UK of the reunion episode.

it might be beyond our grasp but we will also reach out for interviews, and will certainly publish our reviews of the programme if and when we see it.

It all sounds so positive, ……

But wait,

I hear they’re prissy, bourgeois and all that
Is this the type of place that they should send this cool cat?
I don’t think so, we´ll see when he gets there
I hope they’re prepared for the Prince of Bel-Air