‘The Karate Kid’ star wanted for ‘Bourne’-esque franchise.
Variety reports that Sony Pictures and Overbrook Entertainment have begun negotiations to acquire the feature rights to Allen Zadoff’s young adult novel ‘Boy Nobody.’
According to the trade, the project will be developed as a starring vehicle for Jaden Smith, with the young star playing a character reminiscent of a teenage Jason Bourne.The book, which doesn’t shelves until next spring, is the first a planned trilogy and centers on a brainwashed teenage assassin who starts to regain his emotions.
Zadoff describes his protagonist as a “young soldier trained not to feel; who could function in every situation without fear, sympathy or anger; who could assassinate strangers and then walk away emotionally unscathed.”
Smith, who was last seen on screen in the reboot of ‘The Karate Kid,’ is currently in production on M. Night Shyamalan’s sci-fi actioner ‘After Earth’ with his father, Will Smith.