Nicholas Stoller will write a new draft of the Uptown Saturday Night remake with Denzel Washington and Will Smith 

Will Smith acquired the remake rights to the Sidney Poitier-directed trilogy of films co-starring Bill Cosby, beginning with 1974’s Uptown Saturday Night, all the way back in 2002. And Smith and Denzel Washington have been talking about co-starring in the remake ever since, as Washington continues to trod a Poitier-esque route and Smith has starred in uproarious comedies like Hitch and After Earth. But in the past few years the project has gone from dormant to right around the corner. Adam McKay was hired as director last year, and now Forgetting Sarah Marshall director and The Muppets co-writer Nicholas Stoller has been hired to rewrite the script, with Variety reporting McKay wants it to be his next film, to start shooting next summer. Stoller has about a month to deliver a new draft, at which point Washington and Smith will have final approval on whether the project moves forward with saying-but-not-saying the two stars are the new Poitier and Cosby.