Rodrigo Santoro Will Target Will Smith In 'Focus'

Briefly: The movie Focus once had Ben Affleck attached as the lead, but it became a Will Smith movie earlier this year. And now Rodrigo Santoro, who'll once again play Xerxes in 300: Rise of an Empire, has been set to play "the powerful owner of a Formula One race team" who is also the antagonist to Smith's character. The heist movie will be directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love).

In the movie, Smith is a con man who becomes romantically involved with a rookie criminal. While Kristen Stewart was originally attached, the role is now set for Margot Robbie. Santoro's character, who was once involved with the young woman, shows up and throws Smith's scheme off balance. Or, in longer but slightly more ambiguous terms, the script by Ficarra and Requa has been summarized as:

A veteran con man gets involved with a newcomer to the grifter business. They get involved romantically but that becomes perilous in a business where they lie and cheat for a living. The complications of the encounter haunt them when they meet up again in the future.