Will Smith Plans to be the Last Pharoah

Will Smith, ready to hit the way back machine and head off to ancient Egypt.

Variety reports today that Will Smith has signed on to The Last Pharaoh, a historical drama set to be written by Randall Wallace (well, come on, if it’s a historical drama set against a backdrop of battles, wars, last stands, etc, of course it’s going to be written by Randall Wallace).

Smith has apparently long wanted to play Taharqa, an Egyptian pharoah who battled Assyrian invaders in Egypt. Action will focus on the period around 677 BC when Taharqa battled Assyrian leader Asarhaddon.

Here is what Encyclopedia Britannica had to say about Taharqa:

Although the earlier years of King Taharqa (ruled 690–664 bc), who as second son of Shabaka had succeeded his brother Shebitku (ruled 703–690 bc), were prosperous, the confrontation with Assyria became acute. In 671 bc the Assyrian king Esarhaddon entered Egypt and drove Taharqa into Upper Egypt. Two years later Taharqa regained a battered Memphis, but in 667 bc Esarhaddon’s successor, Ashurbanipal, forced Taharqa to Thebes, where the Cushites held ground. Taharqa’s successor, Tanutamon, defeated at Memphis a coalition of delta princes who supported Assyria, but Ashurbanipal’s reaction to this was to humiliate Thebes, which the Assyrians plundered. By 656 the Cushites had withdrawn from the Egyptian political scene, although Cushite culture survived in the Sudanese Napatan and Meroitic kingdom for another millennium.

And a look at the list of pharoahs on Virtual Egypt shows quite a few to follow after Taharqa. So the title doesn’t seem quite accurate. I’m guessing there’s going to be some artistic license and shifty history in this one.

Smith, one of the few stars in Hollywood who can really bring in audiences, will next be seen in Seven Pounds in December. Wallace is directing a script about super racehorse Secretariat and his owner, Penny Chenery, for Disney.