The Will Smith action film Gemini Man, in which the Fresh Prince does battle with a younger clone of himself across several continents, is looking at a loss of at least $75 million. In addition to being the worst-reviewed movie of Oscar-winning director Ang Lee’s career, the movie struggled with heavy competition from high profile franchise films Joker and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
Originally written in the 90s with Clint Eastwood in mind for the lead role, Gemini Man has changed studios, directors, and stars several times over the past 20 years. (At one point, Nicolas Cage was attached, and now all I want in this world is to see Nicolas Cage’s Gemini Man.)
The film’s much-touted de-aging effects presumably added quite a bit of cost to its astounding $140 million budget. Coupled with an additional marketing spend of approximately $100 million, Gemini Man’s astronomical failure is leaving its four production and distribution companies – Paramount, Skydance, Fosun, and Alibaba – with multi-millions of dollars of red ink on their books.
