Will Smith and Joseph Marcell in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Smith is reportedly about to bring the beat back. Photograph: Alpha Photo Press Agency Ltd.

Will Smith's Fresh Prince to be flipped-turned upside down in modern reboot

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Smith’s production company reportedly developing a family comedy that offers a new take on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s ‘fish-out-of-water tale’

Grab your fluoro spray can and prepare to do “the Carlton” because Will Smith is reportedly working on a 21st century reboot of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Smith’s production company Overbrook Entertainment is in the early stages of developing a family comedy that plans to put a new spin on the Fresh Prince’s “fish-out-of-water tale”, according to TV Line.

Will Smith: former Fresh Prince whose career threatens to turn stale

The NBC sitcom, which ran for six seasons between 1990 and 1996, saw Smith – who had already rapped as “the Fresh Prince” – play a trouble-making teen, also called Will, who moves from Philadelphia to Bel-Air to live with his wealthy aunt and uncle and their children Hilary, Carlton and Ashley. Smith also wrote the show’s hugely popular theme song with Quincy Jones.

The sitcom launched the rapper’s acting career and he went on to make the Men in Black and Bad Boys action franchises and become one of the highest paid leading men in Hollywood.

But his most recent release, the romantic thriller Focus opposite Margot Robbie, was not well received by Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw, who called the caper “fantastically boring” with Smith on “insufferably smug form”.

Fresh Prince of Bel Air

NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt told TV Line the network was not involved with Smith’s new project but would “be happy to talk to Will about it”. The project would be a completely new show with different characters, another source told Variety.

The original Fresh Prince cast has enjoyed a varied fate. Tatyana Ali (Ashley) followed Smith into the music business before switching tack to study African-American studies at Harvard, while Joseph Marcell (Geoffrey, the butler) played King Lear in a 2013 Shakespeare’s Globe tour.

Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton) appeared on the UK version of I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here, before winning season 19 of the US version of Dancing with the Stars. James Avery, the 6ft 5in actor who played Uncle Phil, died in 2013 at the age of 68 from complications during heart surgery.

Smith will reportedly serve as executive producer alongside his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith and fellow Overbrook partners James Lassiter and Caleeb Pinkett. This is not the only show the company has in development. In October, it was announced Smith was working with Fox on a small screen spin-off of his 2005 romantic comedy, Hitch.