Will Smith becoming a rom-com legend didn’t go off without a hitch.
The actor, 56, starred opposite Eva Mendes in 2005’s “Hitch,” and now the film’s director Andy Tennant revealed it wasn’t smooth sailing working alongside the onscreen lead.
As the movie’s 20th anniversary approaches, the director, 69, told Business Insider: “We had our difficulties. The movie I wanted to make and the movie Will wanted to make, neither one of those movies is as good as the movie we made together. It was a battle.”
Tennant accused the Oscar winner of trying to “back out” of the project just three days before the start of filming so he could “work on it some more.”
But the creative credited Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, for allegedly stepping in behind the scenes.
“Jada was a big help,” Tennant continued. “She kind of seconded some of my instincts. There was a time during prep when I was pushing back on a lot of crazy s–t that was happening.”
By the mid-2000s Smith had already made “Men in Black,” “Ali,” and “Bad Boys.” So why switch to a romantic comedy?
After being told by the studio that “romantic comedies with Black leads don’t travel well overseas,” Smith took it as a challenge, Tennant recalled.
And the project ended up being a huge success. “Hitch” earned over $370 million globally on its $70,000 budget.
Another battle on set involved not having a location to shoot the doorstep scene between Smith and costar Kevin James, which was written the day it was shot.
“We didn’t have a location to shoot this. We didn’t have permission. We had nothing,” Tennant remembered. “Will and I went to a brownstone we liked, walked up to the door, knocked on the door to see if we could get permission to shoot there, and it turned out to be Sarah Jessica Parker’s house. So she was like, ‘Hi!’ And we were like, ‘Hi, can we shoot on your doorstep?’ And she was like, ‘Ah, yeah.’”
Drama aside he is willing to movie forward with a second “Hitch”, and has “submitted a proposal for a sequel.”
Unfortunately, the version Tennant’s proposed never got off the ground, but he did recently learn that the “Gemini Man” star was moving forward with a rom-com follow-up of his own.
“I just found out about it three months ago,” confessed Tennant. “I had a really good idea for a sequel, and I was talking to an executive at Sony, and he said Will’s production company is developing a sequel.”
As he put it, “Hey, that’s Hollywood.”
The “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” alum is also working on a sequel to his 2007 thriller “I Am Legend” with Michael B. Jordan.
The 38-year-old previously shared he was “really looking forward to” working with his friend.
“We’re still working on the script and getting that up to par,” Jordan told People last June. “It doesn’t have a release date or anything like that. I’m not sure exactly where we’re going to be filming that one, but I’m really excited to get in front of the camera with him.”
