Jay-Z’s Annie remake is still trying to put a cast together. 12-year-old Willow Smith recently exited the lead role and Southern Wild’s Quvenzhané Wallis had to step up to replace her.
Now Jamie Foxx is reportedly in talks with Sony Pictures to play Benjamin Stacks in the modern retelling of the Broadway classic, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Stacks is a modernized variation of the Daddy Warbucks character who helps the iconic orphan search for her parents.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith will serve alongside Jay-Z as an executive producer of the upcoming film, as does her mother. Will Gluck (Friends With Benefits, Easy A) is directing the feature, which is expected to begin filming late in fall 2013 and hit theaters in 2014.
Foxx has had a healthy relationship with Sony. He’s currently filming The Amazing Spider-Man 2, in which he plays villain Electro, and will stars as the president in the studio’s upcoming film White House Down, which debuts in theaters June 28.
