Will Smith is trading in his family-friendly aura and big blockbuster stardom to portray American crime boss Nicky Barnes in a biopic for Netflix called “The Council.”
Peter Landesman (“Concussion,” “Parkland”) is writing the script for the film, which tells the untold story of a crime syndicate consisting of the seven black men who ruled Harlem in the 1970s and early ’80s.
This crime syndicate, as spelled out in the film’s logline, was made up of men who dreamed of a self-sufficient and self-policing African American city-state, funded by revolutionizing the drug game.
“The Council” will center on the syndicate’s head, Nicky Barnes, who was dubbed by the New York Times as “Mr.