Will Smith's 'Gemini Man' will be released on October 4, 2019.

Will Smith

Will Smith

The upcoming action thriller will see Will play an ageing assassin who ends up getting involved in a fierce battle with his clone, who is 25 years younger than him with sharper skills.

Ang Lee is directing the Paramount movie, which has been in the pipeline since 1997.

The original project, set up by Disney, was pitched by Darren Lake, with Don Murphy producing and Tony Scott directing. But it was put on hold for many years to allow the visual effects technology to catch up with the film concept.

The script has been tweaked along the way, and the idea of having two different actors play the assassin and the clone was scrapped, with Smith taking on both roles as developments in filmmaking will enable him to play both different ages and fight against himself.

Jerry Bruckheimer, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger are producing, with Don Murphy and Chad Oman serving as executive producers.

Meanwhile, 'Men In Black' director Barry Sonnenfeld recently revealed he tricked Chris O'Donnell into turning down the 1997 movie, so that he could cast Will instead.

Chris had been singled out for the part of Agent J in 'MIB' by Steven Spielberg who was producing the sci-fi action film through his company Amblin Entertainment.

Sonnenfeld said: "Steven Spielberg told me I had to go to dinner with Chris and convince Chris to be in the movie. I knew I wanted Will Smith, so I told Chris that I wasn't a very good director and I didn't think the script was very good and if he had any other options he shouldn't do 'Men In Black'.

"He let it be known the next day that he was not interested."