WillowSmith Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you have a girl between the ages of 4 and 12 in your life, chances are pretty good you've heard of American Girl. The wildly successful franchise has spawned a whole series of high-end dolls, doll clothes, doll furniture and accessories, books, cookbooks ... and, of course, movies. American Girls are enormously popular with both girls and parents seeking a wholesome alternative to the freakishly-thin Barbie doll image or the hooker-in-training look of those wretched Bratz dolls. As an added bonus, they encourage girls to learn a little history, without even realizing it .

The whole thing with American Girl is that each of the dolls comes from a different time period: there's Kristen, an immigrant girl from Sweden; Felicity, an American Revolution girl whose father is a Patriot, while her best friend's father is a Loyalist; Samantha, being raised by her wealthy grandmother in the 1920s, when women's suffrage and class difference were big issues; Molly, a girl whose father, a doctor, is off serving in the Second World War; Addy, who escapes slavery with her mother to search for her father and brother, and so on. Each doll has her own set of books: there's the intro book, the birthday book, the book where so-and-so learns a lesson, the Christmas book, and even a line of mystery books.

Having one little Smith in a film already amps up the cuteness, but now Variety reports that we're going to get a double serving. Willow and Jaden Smith, the little offspring of Will and Jada, are going to star in an adaptation of Kazu Kibuishi's Amulet. Of course, Will Smith is producing with Overbrook Entertainment. Right now, there's no word on a screenwriter or director.

Amulet is a graphic novel that focuses on a brother and sister who move into their late great-grandfather's house with their mother after their father dies. It's not a particularly safe move, because they have to "use his amulet to rescue their widowed mother from a beast who lures her into an underground world."

Should this adaptation be successful, I'd get ready to see a lot more of the Smith offspring. This could, potentially, be a series of kiddie adventures, since it's a Scholastic series with 5 books planned (#2 will be released this year). Personally, I'm glad to see a new children's adaptation that doesn't seem to be jumping on the boy wizard bandwagon. And really, how can you resist those tykes?

In an interesting bit of casting news, Will Smith's six-year-old daughter Willow (a name I wholeheartedly approve of) will join her father in the cast of his upcoming vampire film I am Legend. She'll be playing the role she was born to play -- the daughter of Will Smith's character. Smith will play a vampire hunter with plenty of prey, as his character is set to be the last non-vampire in an apocalyptically plagued earth; although the vampire/non-vampire status of his daughter in the film seems to be unknown currently.

Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith are obviously both accomplished actors, and soon Smith will be able to claim acting credits for his whole family. In addition to Willow joining Legend, his son Jaden will appear (also with Smith) in The Pursuit of Happyness later this year. I don't know about you, but bring your kid to work day, for me, never involved acting in a major motion picture.