Willow Smith to Star in "Annie" Remake

Annie is one of those classic musicals and/or movies that makes people feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  It should be interesting, therefore, to see how the public responds to the news that it’s being remade with young Willow Smith in the title role…

The reboot will be produced by her famous dad, Will Smith, with his Men In Black: 3 co-star, Emma Thompson, writing the screenplay and Jay-Z working on the new soundtrack.  For her part, Thompson explains that production is set to begin this spring in New York City and she seems really happy to have it come to fruition. She said: “I’ve been writing the script for nearly three years – it’s exciting.”

It can’t be too surprising that Jay-Z is connected with the project since he clearly likes the original music.  He released his own version of "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" on his third album Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life back in 1999.  It was later used in Austin Powers: Goldmember.

What do you make of this?  Is it a good idea?  A lot of people were less than thrilled when Willow’s older brother, Jaden, starred in the updated version of Karate Kid (when his mentor was suddenly Chinese instead of Japanese and they did Kung Fu instead of actual karate…sigh) so it will be interesting to see how audiences respond to this.