Production Underway in Australia
Filming has officially begun on the upcoming thriller Supermax, with production kicking off this week in New South Wales, Australia. The project, produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Miramax, receives support from the NSW Government through Screen NSW's Made in NSW Fund.
Will Smith announced the start of production with a video jointly shared to Instagram by himself, Amazon, and Miramax. In the post, he could be seen hyping up Day 1 as he headed into a trailer, though he took a stumble along the way. The 57-year-old actor laughed off the near-miss, poking fun at himself for the incident. Smith also showed off a gift from his son, Jaden: a pair of red-bottom shoes.
Casting Announcements
David Gordon Green has added four more actors to the cast: Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Andrés Almeida, Martín Bats Bradford, and Erika Ringor. Character details for these roles are being kept under wraps. They join previously announced stars Will Smith and AnnaSophia Robb, who play the lead roles, as well as Jason Clarke, Jafaar Jackson, and others.
Chavez recently broke out with his role as Lyle Menendez in Ryan Murphy's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and later reunited with Murphy on the FX horror drama Grotesquerie. He recently wrapped The Technique, a psychological thriller from the producers of Longlegs and Oh, Canada, starring alongside Emma Roberts, Ben Platt, and Noomi Rapace. He is represented by CAA, Untitled, and Felker, McGinnis & Ryan.
Almeida, a veteran of the Mexican film and television industry, counts Y tu mamá también and Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths among his credits. He has a role in the upcoming Todd Haynes romance agony De Noche, alongside Pedro Pascal and Danny Ramirez, and is repped by COLOürs.
Bradford has appeared in Apple's limited series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, opposite Samuel L. Jackson, and in films including Richard Linklater's Hit Man, Justin Chon's Blue Bayou, and the boxing biopic Big George Foreman. She is represented by Erica Michelle Drake of HIAR Management.
Ringor has credits in Love & Basketball, Bosch: Legacy, and The Morning Show'. On Supermax, she reunites with Smith, with whom she worked on King Richard, the film that earned him his first Oscar. She is represented by DDO Artists Agency and Pink Hammer Entertainment.
Film Details and Premise
Supermax follows two FBI agents investigating a seemingly impossible murder within the walls of a maximum-security prison. Smith plays one agent, and AnnaSophia the other. The film is directed by David Gordon Green, best known for the Halloween reboots, from a script written by David Weil and David J. Rosen.
Producing are Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman for The Picture Company, alongside Smith and Adam Fishbach for Westbrook Studios. Executive producers include Weil and Rosen, Miramax CEO Jonathan Glickman, President of Film Alexandra Loewy, COO Thom Zadra, SVP Spencer Ela, James Lassiter, and Miguel Melendez, with Natalie Heineman as associate producer.
CAA Media Finance brokered the deal between Miramax and Amazon MGM, which will release Supermax on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.
Smith's Upcoming Projects
Supermax marks Smith's first film since Bad Boys: Ride or Die in 2024. He has several other projects in the pipeline, including Resistor and Rabbit Hole. He also stepped away from the film Sugar Bandits, and almost reunited with Michael Bay on Netflix's Fast & Loose, though he left that production due to creative differences with the director. Smith is also developing a sequel to I Am Legend and has teased another Hancock movie.
Smith's personal anecdote about his first day on set has already captured attention, serving as a lighthearted start to what promises to be a high-stakes thriller.