As of late, Will Smith has been picking up huge projects left and right, but this next one might take the cake for being the most random of them all. The Aladdin actor is working behind the scenes to produce a romantic comedy set in the NASCAR world with EDM group The Chainsmokers, along with the famed auto racing company working beside him. It’s going to be called Clean Air and it’s expected to be made for Amazon Studios.
Clean Air will reportedly be about an ambitious sports agent named Lyla who loses her biggest client before NASCAR’s latest season and is strapped for options. She decides to take a chance on turning a 17-year-old dirt track racer named Piper Kyte into a star. The only problem is Piper’s reclusive father Matthew Kyte, who used to be a former NASCAR champion in his own right. Lyla must reform Matthew in order to get fans behind Piper.
You might think that Matthew Kyte would be an interesting role for Will Smith to perhaps take on, but Deadline is reporting that Will Smith does not plan to star in Clean Air and will remain on the producing side of things. Smith has kept his distance from the work he’s produced prior, such as with Netflix’s Cobra Kai, 2020’s Charm City Kings and Life in a Year, the latter starring his son Jaden Smith.
Ok, but what about The Chainsmokers? How did the “Closer” production duo get on Clean Air too? Well, apparently the EDM group has an established relationship with NASCAR given that they’ve played shows at a number of their races over the years, and their production company Kick The Habit Productions, became involved after coming across the script. The musicians apparently were looking for a rom-com, and Clean Air ended up being a solid pick.
Clean Air was written by Alison Rose Greenberg, who has written one episode of Younger and recently adapted her first novel Bad Luck Bridesmaids into a screenplay ahead of the book hitting shelves in early 2022. In terms of how this ties into Will Smith’s production company, Westbrook Studios reportedly saw some influences from 2005's Hitch, which Smith famously starred in with Eva Mendes and Kevin James.
Aside from Clean Air, Will Smith is set to produce and star with Kevin Hart in a remake of Planes, Trains & Automobiles. Smith will also star in Antoine Fuqua’s thriller Emancipation, which is about a runaway slave who is forced to outwit plantation owners from killing him. Before those films, Will Smith is taking on awards season with the release of King Richard, a biopic about tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams’ father and coach.
King Richard is coming out on November 19, and you can check out what other movies are coming our way this year with CinemaBlend’s 2021 release schedule.
