(Poor Will, nobody told him he didn’t win anything.)

A Hollywood actor is poised to go full retard, and this time, the blackface won’t be necessary.

According to our inside source, The Hollywood Cog, Smith is set to produce and star in Flowers for Algernon, a modern-day adaptation of the Daniel Keyes’ novel.

Flowers for Algernon has been adapted several times since it was originally published in 1959, most famously Ralph Nelson’s Charly, which won Cliff Robertson an Academy Award in 1969. The short story (and the subsequent novel) is about Charlie, a mentally retarded man who is the first human test subject for an experimental surgery that artificially increases intelligence. The experiment had already been performed successfully on Algernon, a lab mouse. Charlie’s newfound intelligence (his IQ skyrockets from 68 to 185), however, comes at the cost of his ability to socialize normally, as he becomes increasingly alienated from those around him. Emotional consequences are involved when Charlie learns the truth of the experiment. [Pajiba]

A guy alienates everyone he works after he suddenly becomes smart?  Sounds like a metaphor for the movie business.  Seriously, I tried to recommend a book to Jerry Bruckheimer one time, and he just shrieked like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and threw his poop at me.