What Are the Odds of the Will Smith/M. Night Shyamalan Movie Actually Happening?

Score another project in in the works for Will Smith and his offspring! This time it's Jaden Smith, who is reportedly booked to reteamwith his father to appear in an untitled sci-fi movie for Sony and co-writer/director M. Night Shyamalan. Nothing too out of the ordinary there -- except it joins 13 other Will Smith films is various stages of development limbo.

The news first broke this afternoon via Deadline, followed up by an announcement from Sony:

Jaden Smith is set to star opposite his father, Will Smith, for director M. Night Shyamalan in an untitled sci-fi adventure, it was announced today by Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures. Shyamalan and Will Smith will produce with James Lassiter, Jada Pinkett Smith and Ken Stovitz, Smith's partners at Overbrook Entertainment. The screenplay is by M. Night Shyamalan and Gary Whitta.

Set 1,000 years into the future, a young boy navigates an abandoned and sometimes scary Earth to save himself and his estranged father after their ship crashes.

Commenting on the announcement, Belgrad said, "Night is an outstanding filmmaker who has a tremendous vision for this science-fiction adventure story and we couldn't be more excited to be working again with Jaden after our experiences on The Pursuit of Happyness and The Karate Kid. We're thrilled to have the two of them together on this project."

Shyamalan added, "The chance to make a scary, science-fiction film starring Jaden and Will is my dream project."

Fantastic -- except where does it rank among the baker's dozen of other Will Smith movies (some co-starring kids Jaden or Willow, some continuations of existing or would-be Smith franchises) we've been promised over the years? As inventoried and analyzed here at Movieline last month, they include:

· Joe (ODDS: No Line)

· The Legend of Cain (25 to 1)

· The City That Sailed (40 to 1)

· Untitled I Am Legend Prequel/Sequel (50 to 1)

· Independence Day 2 and 3 (75 to 1)

· Hancock 2 (75 to 1)

· Uptown Saturday Night (100 to 1)

· The Last Pharaoh (200 to 1)

· Hood (400 to 1)

· My Wife Hates Your Wife (700 to 1)

· It Takes a Thief (1,000 to 1)

· Bad Boys 3 (Never)

You have to like the Smith/Shyamalan pairing to go first based on a couple factors: Its Smith family creds (a quality shared as well by Cain and City That Sailed) and the dynamics of the Smiths' preexisting relationship with Sony. Will's in the middle of making Men in Black III for the studio, which is rumored to desperately want to move forward with Hancock 2; Jaden is on the hook for Karate Kid 2. And their previous teaming for the studio, The Pursuit of Happyness, grossed $300 million globally and scored Will Smith an Oscar nomination. Getting another non-sequel, father-son flick off the ground satisfies the conditions of both the dynasty-building Smiths and the wise-spending Sony, for whom the Shyamalan connection only bolsters the box-office upside.

That said, it's a Will Smith project. We hear about a new one every month or so, and for it to open when Sony presumably wants it -- summer 2013, a year after MIB3 -- it would have to kick off almost immediately after MIB3 wraps this spring. Shyamalan will be ready, but will Smith? Will his son? And where does Karate Kid 2, which is already scheduled for 2013 and has script revisions in the works, fit in? Good problems to have if you're Sony, I suppose, but something's got to give. Developing... (Like, literally) ODDS: 20 to 1