Everything Will Smith touches turns to gold anyway, so it makes sense for him to play an Egyptian pharaoh in his next film.

Variety has reported the box-office champ is set to star in The Last Pharaoh. He will play Taharqa, who led the Egyptians in a battle against an invading Assyrian force in the late 7th century.

Taharqa was part of the Nubian dynasty, which stemmed from the more southern parts of the country near Sudan.

The script has been written by the well-respected Randall Wallace, the man responsible for Braveheart with Mel Gibson.




You could say the movie will be part of Smith's unofficial 'I Am God' trilogy.

First there was I Am Legend, in which he played a scientist who discovers a cure for a disease that has wiped out most of Earth's population.

And next came Hancock, about a booze-drinking reluctant superhero.

Up next for the 40-year-old though is Seven Pounds, to be released later this year, in which he plays a depressed FBI agent who sets out to help the lives of seven strangers.