Will Smith to play Iraq war veteran in upcoming action thriller

Los Angeles, Feb 15 (IANS) Hollywood star Will Smith will be seen in the upcoming high-octane actioner 'Sugar Bandits', where he will play an Iraq war veteran.

Based on the Chuck Hogan book 'Devils in Exile', the thriller centres on an Iraq war veteran who teams up with a crew of fellow vets to target the drug trade in Boston.

Hogan, whose writing credits include 'The Town' and 'The Strain' (which he co-wrote with Guillermo del Toro), penned the screenplay, reports Variety.

Smith and Jon Mone will produce through Westbrook Studios with Ryan Shimazaki overseeing; Stuart Ford will produce for AGC Studios, which is fully financing the film; and Richard Abate ('13 Hours', 'From Scratch') will produce for 3 Arts Entertainment.

'Sugar Bandits' marks the latest film for Smith, whose last major feature and the first since his infamous Oscars slap was Antoine Fuqua’s 'Emancipation', which sold to Apple TV+ in Cannes for a market record deal of $120 million, but failed to make a significant impact on launch.

He also has the untitled fourth 'Bad Boys' film, which is still in production, alongside the upcoming sequel to Zombie hit 'I Am Legend', which is set to co-star Michael B. Jordan and see Smith reprise his role from the 2007 original.

'Sugar Bandits' was first announced back in 2013 with Universal developing the feature.