JoJo Siwa’s “Bounce,” which had Will Smith as a producer, has been bounced off Paramount’s development slate, TheWrap has learned.
The project, which would have marked the YouTuber and “Dancing with the Stars” contestant’s big-screen feature debut, fell apart months ago and is unrelated to Smith slapping presenter Chris Rock during the Oscars ceremony last month.
Last year, Siwa came out as part of the LGBTQ community to her millions of followers via social media, which she said was a move encouraged by her girlfriend.
Siwa was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2020 and competed on “Dancing With the Stars” last year, making history as the first contestant to dance with a same-sex partner. She also served as creative director and executive producer of the E! reality competition series “Siwa’s Dance Pop Revolution.”
“My thing with ‘coming out’ is it can be a very scary thing,” Siwa told late-night host Jimmy Fallon. “Of course, not everybody in the world is going to accept it right now, but there are so many people who are going to accept it right now. And I say, even if there’s a million people, say there’s a million people, that’s a lot of people, that don’t accept it, there’s 100 million that do. And I think that’s something really important, 100 million is a lot of people. So I always keep that in mind.”
Siwa most recently starred in “The J Team” for Paramount+. The movie is directed by Michael Lembeck, written by Eydie Faye and produced by Ron French. Don Dunn is an executive producer.
Along with Siwa, “The J Team” stars Tisha Campbell-Martin, Laura Soltis, Julia Marley, Kerrynton Jones and Kiara T. Romero.
“The J Team” follows a young girl named JoJo (Siwa) whose life is turned upside down when her beloved dance coach Val (Soltis) decides to retire and is replaced by a sparkle-hating instructor named Poppy (Campbell-Martin). Wanting to stay in the running for an upcoming dance competition, JoJo and her best friends, The Rubies (Jones, Romero), must try their hardest to abide by Poppy’s new, harsh rules. Realizing she cannot hide her sparkle or bow anymore, JoJo is kicked out of her dance troupe and must rediscover what dancing means to her.
Variety first reported the news.