The cast of "Focus" doesn't have one thing: focus.
Written and directed by "Crazy Stupid Love" duo Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, "Focus" focuses (last one) on a con man who falls in love with a young protege. Last year, Ben Affleck and Kristen Stewart were attached to star, but Affleck dropped the project earlier this year due to scheduling conflicts.
"Basically I'm doing this movie called 'Live By Night' and I'm trying to meet this schedule so that I can have it released at the right time," he told MTV News in January. "And basically I haven't gotten enough writing done; it became clear that if I took that job — it was in Buenos Aires for three months — I'd have to miss the deadline. I had to choose between getting the movie out when I wanted to or doing that movie."
Affleck said he was really "excited" to work with Stewart on the film, but felt the producers would "find a great guy for it."
According to Variety and THR, they have: Will Smith is now in talks to star in "Focus." The problem? Now Stewart has dropped out. Per Variety, Stewart left the film because "the age difference between [her and Smith] would be too large a gap"; Smith is 44 years old, while Stewart is just 23 years old. (It should be noted that Affleck is 40 years old.)
To her credit, Stewart was looking forward to the project. "It's a comedy. I'm really excited about it," she told HuffPost Entertainment last year. "We start shooting in April." Or not.
