Will, Ryan to Produce Hip-Hop Flick

By Stephen M. Silverman

Wednesday June 26, 2002 01:00 PM EDT

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Yahoo Buzz
• E-mail

In movie news from all over -- well, mostly from Hollywood -- "Men in Black II" star Will Smith, 33, and "Gosford Park" bounder Ryan Phillippe, 28, are joining to produce "White Boy Shuffle," to begin shooting this fall, reports Variety. It is described as a hip-hop "Catcher in the Rye," about a young African-American whose life is turned upside down when his family moves from the beach to South Central L.A. It appears that Smith and Phillippe's functions on the project will be strictly behind the camera. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter says Columbia Pictures is remaking the 1967 liberal family drama "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," about a young white woman who brings home a black fiance. (Sidney Poitier was the groom-to-be in the original, and Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were the parents. Hepburn's niece, Katharine Houghton, played the bold bride.) The Reporter says Bernie Mac, 44, star of the Fox comedy "The Bernie Mac Show" is due to star in the picture, which will reverse the racial situation of the original, meaning that this time he'll bring home a white woman to meet his parents.