At the end of every year now, the trade papers publish their “Hollywood Blacklist” scripts, meaning scripts which have made the studio rounds, scripts that people love and are interested in, but they haven’t been bought yet. One of the scripts on the 2018 Hollywood Blacklist was King Richard by Zach Baylin. I made some references to my interest in seeing the script produced, because it sounds like the kind of thing that should have been made YEARS ago. King Richard tells the story of Richard Williams, father to Serena Williams and Venus Williams. Richard was the one who made the plan for Venus and Serena to become tennis players. He taught himself tennis, then trained his daughters throughout their childhoods. He was their first coach, and their coach throughout their first years on the tour.

It’s been said before, but it’s absolutely worth saying again: if Richard, Serena and Venus had been white, the tennis establishment would have rolled out the red carpet for them. Richard would have had his own tennis academy, and he would have been asked to be a commentator on all the tennis matches. But because of their race, Richard and his girls were seen as interlopers and outsiders. Everyone doubted him. Until they didn’t. Anyway, the script is being produced. And Will Smith is probably going to be cast as Richard. OH GOD.

Even though there were no major tennis tournaments last weekend, the minds of industry leaders were courtside anyway. They were reading King Richard, a spec script by Zach Baylin that has Will Smith poised to play Richard Williams. He is the father of Venus and Serena Williams. Despite having no tennis background, he overcame tremendous hardship, skepticism and his own troubled past to raise two of the game’s greatest players. When his daughters were around the age of four, Richard Williams drew up a 78-page plan for their professional tennis careers. He began giving them tennis lessons and the girls learned the game on cracked, weedy public courts in Compton, reportedly after their father brawled with young toughs who were not fans of the sport and would not make way. The Williams sisters went on to become two of the greatest female players in tennis history, with Serena arguably the best ever, with 23 Grand Slam tournament wins. Venus Williams has won seven Grand Slam titles.

Smith, who will next be seen starring in Aladdin for Disney, recently stepped away from reprising in the Suicide Squad sequel. He hasn’t set his next film, and clearly this is something he’s passionate about and it could happen quickly. CAA reps him and is selling the script. Smith is currently shooting Bad Boys For Life.

[From Deadline]

When I first read about the script, I was already dream-casting Mahershala Ali in the role, quite honestly. Mahershala would be absolutely fantastic as Richard – people always remember Richard as this bombastic, temperamental hustler, but really he was soft-spoken and patient. I think Mahershala would do him justice. Will Smith… I just don’t know. I’m not feeling it.

Here’s an interview with Richard at Wimbledon in 2012, before his stroke several years ago.

And here’s the famous moment when Richard stops an interview with a 14-year-old Venus because the interviewer was being a douche. Tell me, do you see Will Smith doing this? Or do you see Mahershala doing it??

And here’s the Nike commercial from last year which used the archival video of Richard training Serena when she was a little girl.

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty.