Will Smith Starring in ‘Sugar Bandits’

The ‘Sicario: Day of the Soldado’ filmmaker has found his next movie, with Smith starring as a former Special Forces soldier battling Boston’s drug trade.

Will Smith accepts the Best Actor award for 'King Richard' onstage during the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on March 13, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association.

Preview:

Will Smith has boarded action thriller ‘Sugar Bandits’.
Stefano Sollima will direct.
It’s based on a book by ‘The Town’s Chuck Hogan.

It’s not often the likes of Will Smith grace the casts of indie movies (and with an $80 million budget, it’s not exactly a tiny little project), but he will be taking a role in a new action thriller called ‘Sugar Bandits’.

The movie, which follows veteran soldiers banding together to tackle the drug trade in Boston (putting their lives once more at serious risk), is now looking to lock up distribution at the Cannes market.

What’s the story of ‘Sugar Bandits’?

(L to R) Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner in 'The Town'. Photo: Warner Bros.

‘Sugar Bandits’ is the story of Neal Maven and a crew of fellow Special Forces Iraq War veterans, who begin ripping off Boston-area drug dealers for profit, throwing their lives into jeopardy.

As Maven’s involvement deepens, two worrisome things he begins to suspect that their leader has a sinister ulterior motive, and he lusts after the leader’s girl — a tough former model with a drug problem. As the rip-off jobs get riskier, Maven and his crew are soon pursued by both a smart federal DEA agent and by a pair of psychopathic Jamaican hit men on a drug lords’ payroll.

When everything goes bad — and it goes very bad — Maven embarks on a one-man crusade to right the wrongs in which he unwittingly participated. Not everyone will survive his crusade, and Maven himself may not live to see the final outcome…

The movie is adapted by Chuck Hogan from his novel ‘Devils in Exile’. If Hogan’s name sounds familiar, it might be because his Boston-set work was previously adapted into ‘The Town’, which was directed by and starred Ben Affleck.

Who is making ‘Sugar Bandits’?

(L to R) Jamie Bell as Robert Ritter and Michael B. Jordan as John Kelly in Prime Video's 'Without Remorse.'

Shortly before the Cannes market kicked off, Italian director Stefano Sollima, who previously handled the likes of ‘Without Remorse’, ‘Sicario: Day of the Soldado’ and hit TV series ‘Gomorrah’, signed on to handle the movie.

That, in turn, has sparked a host of distribution deals for the indie movie, including Amazon’s Prime Video service snapping up the rights to the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, among other places.

There’s no word yet on a domestic distributor, but the movie is forging ahead, with a fall shoot planned in Montreal and Boston, with the aforementioned $80 million price tag.

What else is Will Smith working on?

(L to R) Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in 'Bad Boys: Ride or Die.' Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.

It would appear that Smith is certainly shifting up a gear now that the impact of his Oscars slap incident with Chris Rock is starting to dissipate. He’ll be back on our screens in ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ on June 7th.

According to Deadline, Smith won’t take the lead in this one, but is instead opting for a co-starring role.

When will ‘Sugar Bandits’ be in theaters?

Given that it has only just started to make distribution deals –– and isn’t even in production yet, we’d guess it’ll be arriving either late in 2025 or in 2026.