
According to sources, prior to the notorious Oscars slap, director David Leitch decided to withdraw the film; furthermore, the streaming platform now has put the project on the back burner.
In a stroke of unintended good timing, on the week before the Oscar ceremony, director David Leitch retired as the director of a scheduled Netflix movie Fast and Loose, which stars Will Smith. Instead, he joined Universal’s Fall Guy, which stars Ryan Gosling, and its production is planned to start in August.
It is said that Universal was contesting with Netflix to work with Leitch in the next project, but finally Universal won. An urgent call was made by Netflix to another director to cover the film with the attendance of the star who was laboriously preferred to win the best actor at the Oscars. However, after Smith’s slap on Chris Rock at the Oscar ceremony, this project was moved quietly to the back burner by Netflix. In Fast and Loose, a crime boss loses his memory after being attacked. Piecing together hints, he finds that he has directed a double identity including a rich kingpin and a broke CIA agent. It seems that Netflix is suspicious of moving forward. Currently, it is not clear whether the project will continue working with another director and actor.
Smith obtains Apple+’s slave escape drama Emancipation which is currently in the post-production. It was scheduled to debut in 2022, but there is no release date yet. Apple refused to comment. On the other hand, Sony’s Bad Boys 4 has been developed actively and 40 pages of the script were sent to Smith prior to the Oscars; nevertheless, it now pauses. It is possible that some other projects will do the same. Netflix did not reply to requests for comment.