In Development

Will Smith: Once a Fresh Prince, Soon to be a Pharaoh

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 8, 2008

Will Smith to Play The Last Pharaoh

At least, that is what Braveheart screenwriter Randall Wallace has in mind. According to Variety, Wallace has signed on with Columbia pictures to write The Last Pharaoh. It tells the story of Taharqa, a pharaoh who battled Assryan invaders in ancient Egypt back in the mid-600s BC.

The script is being written as a vehicle for Will Smith, who is the one that brought the story to Wallace, and has been interested in playing the pharaoh for quite a while. As well, it is worth noting that Wallace is the third screenwriter to be brought onto the project at Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment. The original script was written by Devil in a Blue Dress scribe Carl Franklin, with Never Back Down writer Chris Hauty being brought in to do some polishing earlier this year.

As of right now, there is no target start date for the project, but we will keep an eye out for you.

Also, a very little known fact about Taharqa — he was a Nubian. What the f**k is a Nubian?

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Comments2008-09-08+15%3A56%3A21Neil+Miller

Sam says:
September 8th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

A Nubian is someone from Nubia.
Better known as Sudan nowadays.

and since wikipedia solves these questions all too easily

“In ancient times Nubians were depicted by Egyptians as having very dark skin, often shown with hooped earrings and with braided or extended hair.[1] Ancient Nubians were famous for their vast wealth, their trade between central Africa and the lower Nile valley civilizations, including Egypt, their skill and precision with the bow, their 23 letter alphabet, the use of deadly poison on the heads of their arrows, their great military, their advanced civilization, and their century-long rule over the united upper and lower Egyptian kingdoms.[2]“

Neil Miller says:
September 8th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

@Sam

Thank you for the information.. But that was a joke. It was a reference to a line in Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy. I am very aware, thanks to Wikipedia, of what a real Nubian is… :)

Sam says:
September 8th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

it is too god damn early in the week / morning for those kind of jokes.

god damn it.

Trace says:
September 8th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

LOL Sam cracks me up.

Aleric says:
September 8th, 2008 at 5:30 pm

But Nubians at that time are not classified as black. True they were dark skinned but they had fair features and did not share the same charcteristics as the rest of the African nationals at that time.

HempKnight757 says:
September 8th, 2008 at 7:26 pm

wats a nubian?

HempKnight757 says:
September 8th, 2008 at 7:28 pm

The Fresh Prince of Sudan that should have been the title

ksand 1956 says:
September 9th, 2008 at 8:11 am

Just because whites did not classify them as Black does not mean that they were not. The
Black race consist of many different ethnic groups just as every other race does. This is why
Europeans of all ethnic groups consider ancient Greece to be the root of their civilization
even though they may not themselves be Greek.

Millman says:
September 9th, 2008 at 11:12 am

“not classified as black” If not the color of the skin, what exactly qualifies you for being
black?

Robert Fure says:
September 9th, 2008 at 11:25 am

@ksand

I like how you automatically blame the whites for discrimination, when it was probably the Egyptians (who are not Caucasian) that had the most interactions with them. Further research (or just scrolling down Wikipedia) shows modern day Nubians, who bear a much closer resemblance to other Arabic people as opposed to Africans.

bertrand Mpigabahiz says:
September 14th, 2008 at 10:31 am

The ancient Nubian’s were a very dark skinned people who came from the southwest ( most probobly Chad )… The Ancient Egyptian’s alway’s depicted the Ancient Nubian’s as very dark skinned , with very African feature’s…. Modern Nubians have mixed with arab’s ever since the time’s when the Arabs pushed inside the Sudan and spread the word of islam….the ancient Nubians controlled southern Egypt and northern Sudan… the ancient Egyptians were a black African people who most resembled pure Nilotics like the Maasai and Fur… they also speak a Nilo - Saharan language … here’s pic’s of not mixed Nubians .

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w94/yim1976/nubianfacialscarring-1.jpg
http://www.dignubia.org/maps/timeline/img/b1540a-nubian-tribute-huy.jpg
http://firpocarr.com/db1/00015/firpocarr.com/_uimages/img019_edited.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Anglo-Egyptian_Sudan_Nubian_woman.jpg

And just to let everybody know Nubians were not Ethiopian but Sudanese

bertrand Mpigabahiz says:
September 14th, 2008 at 10:33 am

^ i met to say the ancient Nubians were a black african people who resembled pure Nilotics… but i do think that Ancient Egypt was a mixed state .

bertrand Mpigabahiz says:
September 14th, 2008 at 10:59 am

And i think some of u guy’s are getting confused with the Sudan and Ethiopia… the Ancient Nubians main homeland or base is in north central Sudan … another quarter is found in southern Egypt… and schoaler’s have alway’s classified Sudanese population’s as black since they did name the country Sudan … which translate ’s to ” the land of the Black’s “… i think your getting confused with modern day Ethiopia and the rest of the Horn of africa ( ohhh , and in ancient time’s Ethiopia met Africa in general , so when they said the nubians were the king’s of Ethiopia they really met they where the king’s of Africa, since the country that is now know as ethiopia has only adopted this name in the rescent past( it used to be called Abyssinia before the 1970’s )… so just to let you know they( old biased white scholar’s ) never classified Sudanese people as non - black … that happened in the Horn of africa ( Ethiopia , Eritrea , Somalia , and Djbouti ) but hey they also did that in Rwanda , Burundi , southern Uganda, Northern Nigieria , Mali , Niger , Southern Africa and Northern Congo… so this fact is not so surprising since old white racsist scholar’s alway’s classified people’s who did not look like their “true Negro” as white or non black … the nubian’s were Nilo - sahran or Nilotic just like the Maasai and Fur population’s in that area .

ken says:
October 14th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

EARLY NUBIANS TOO LOOK LIKE WEST AFRICAN BLACKS AS WELL.GREEkS DESCRIBED THEM WITH DARK SKIN ON AVERAGE AND FLAT NOSES AND KINKY HAIR.west africa has a great deal of varied blacks too.it’s good to kept that in mind.

oh good poit o how modern nubians have mixed with arabs,but mostly in egypt .some have in the sudan but most have not.hill nubians for an example are still unmixed blacks,and many nubians in the nile valley in the sudan are unmixed,but some are.most arabized nubians however in the sudan are clearly unmixed on average than the average nile nubian in the sudan and so are hill nubians of the nuba hills.

[i]Archeological findings have shown that the founding of Kerma (first capital of Nubia) dates back to 5,000 BC The Nubian Empire pre-dates Egyptian civilization and its lifespan outlasted Egypt, Greece and Rome combined. The African army had defeated both Egyptian, Greek and Roman enemies. At the height of its power, Nubia was the center of the ancient world. The Kingdom of Kush, with its alphabet, commerce and architectural triumphs was the equal of its ancient world counterparts. As royal tombs for their rulers they built pyramids which numbered more than all those of Egypt. In the modern world, the memory of this once great empire refuses to fade into history.[/i] - Courtesy of Wysinger

“The Nubians were constantly raiding their Egyptian neighbors. On one of these journeys, the Kandace Amanirenas went along. When confronted, she led her armies into battle and defeated three Roman cohorts. In addition, the Kandace defaced a statue of Emperor Augustus Ceasar; bringing the head back to Nubia as a prize. This head was buried in the doorway of an important building as a final act of disrespect (31). During battle, the Kandace lost an eye; but this only made her more courageous (32). “One Eyed Candace,” as then Roman governor Gaius Petronius referred to her, was chased by the Romans far into her own territory to Pselkis (Dakka) (33). After a three day truce, the Romans struck back. The Kandace and her armies made another stand at Primis (Kasr/Brim), but there were soundly defeated. Although Rome destroyed the religious capital of Napata, there was still the danger of retaliation by the Kandace’s armies. At this point, the leaders negotiated a treaty that she was to break in a few years (34). A historian of the period remarked “This Queen had courage above her sex” (35). On a broader level, this is a telling example of a European civilization unprepared for the “fierce, unyielding resistance of a queen whose determined struggle symbolized the national pride of a people who, until then, had commanded others” (36).

Derek A. Welsby, The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia. Pagans, Christians and Muslims along the nile

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2003/2003-01-16.html

Topic: Sudan:ancient treasures,edited by derek a. welsby and other books

A number of Nubian-Cushite queens called Ka’andakes (Candaces) ruled Nubia-Cush just before the birth of Christ. This queen and her son along with the Nubian-Cushite Army kept the Romans out of Nubia-Cush. In this scene, they are witnessing the burning of the Roman Garrison in Aswan. The Roman army were defeated in Nubia and never attempted to invade that nation again.

one point rome did try to invade again a few more times but were more clearly defeated.

NUBIAN QUEEN AND SON SEES DESTRUCTON OF ROMAN FORT AT ASWAN BY NUBIAN SOLDIERS

copy and paste
http://wysinger.homestead.com/candace1_op_800×355.jpg

check out egyptsearch.com
Photo from Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World National Geographic Society, 1981, page 171-173

ken says:
October 14th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

early lower nubians on average tend to look more like like upper egyptian blacks of ancient egypt.southern and upper nubians tend to have on average broad faces and darker skin.of course their lower nubians on average were darker than upper egyptians and upper egyptians were on average were darker than lower egyptian in anceint times. most of the population of ancient egypt lived in upper egypt and most of the upper egyptians were black africans so egypt was a black african nation.at times lower egypt broke free and eas ruled by mixed types and whites but largely ancient egypt was ruled by black africans.kept in mind ancient egyptian culture is african and it’s language.it’s culture closely related to nubia nd other african culture,not european or south west asian. if you compare them you will see what i mean.
one point a few nubians today in lower nubia in egypt are still unmixed africans.

ken says:
October 16th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

by the way most modern nubians still look black.of course you could find nubians today that look like arabs because some intermarried o at sex with arabs in more recent times over the last few cen.but most nubians still look black and most did not mix with arabs and most are still unmixed blacks.in modern egypt and in lower nubia most have some form of admixture but in the sudan most are not mixed.

on average more so in the sudan and even arabized nubians there too.hill nubians in the nubia hills in central sudan do not look like arabs,they look like other blacks african s.

ken says:
October 16th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

or i should say most nubians today in the sudan do not have any form of mixture from other races.even more on average,hill nubians and arabized nubians.

remember there are three types of nubians today.

arabized nubians. these the nile valley nubians who took more of the arab culture to protect themselves from the arab raids over the last few cent. over time.

nile nubians still exist and there culture is overall still more nubian than arabized nubians.

hill nubians live in the nuba hills on average and are even more nubian in culture still today than the others.

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