As we near the end of 2008, Variety's Peter Bart has issued a memo to Will Smith in which he offer's the rather obvious observation that Seven Pounds "doesn't really work" and cautions the actor's reliance in Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers: The Story of Success. "Your career provides testimony to my point theory that 'innate talent' wins the day, but you're beginning to negate that talent by trying to goddamned hard," Bart tells Smith in the memo.
The memo follows a similar tirade to Baz Lurhmann regarding the director's announced plans to remake The Great Gatsby. "My advice (unsolicited) on Gatsby can be summed up in two words: Think again," Bart says to Lurhmann, adding that Fitzgerald's classic work "doesn't translate to screeen" and can be "an expensive trap."
You can read Bart's full memos on his blog at Variety.com.