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Jaafar Jackson to star in ‘Supermax’ alongside Will Smith

Jaafar Jackson attends the premiere of ‘Michael’ at Dolby Theatre on April 20, 2026, in Hollywood, California. (Christopher Patey/Getty Images for Lionsgate)

Jaafar Jackson has found his next role.

The Michael actor is set to star alongside Will Smith in the upcoming action-thriller film Supermax for Amazon MGM Studios and Miramax, ABC Audio has confirmed.

Pineapple Express and Halloween director David Gordon Green will helm the film. It is set to stream worldwide on Prime Video.

Smith will star as Rex in the film, which is described to be “a propulsive and twist-laden action thriller.” It follows two FBI agents who investigate a murder that has taken place inside the world’s most secure prison.

AnnaSophia Robb has also been cast in the film. She will seemingly play the second FBI agent along with Smith’s Rex.

David Weil and David J. Rosen, who are known for their work on the TV shows Hunters and Invasion, wrote the film. Smith will produce the movie for his company Westbrook.

Jackson, who is the nephew of Michael Jackson, portrayed his uncle in the hit biopic Michael. The Antoine Fuqua-directed film is now the highest-grossing biopic of all time, having surpassed Oppenheimer and Bohemian Rhapsody.

Supermax will mark Smith’s first onscreen appearance since the 2024 film Bad Boys: Ride or Die. That movie was his first major film part after the 2022 incident in which he slapped presenter Chris Rock onstage at the 94th Academy Awards. It was the same night he won his best actor Oscar for portraying Richard Williams in the biopic King Richard.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Warm ocean waters bring a surge of stingrays to Orange County beaches

Click here for updates on this story    ORANGE COUNTY, California (KCAL, KCBS) -- Orange County beachgoers notice that there's a lot of stingrays lately, and lifeguards say the warm water, especially in places where the surf is relatively calm, is contributing to a dramatic increase in the number of stingray incidents.More than 3,100 people have been stung at Bolsa Chica and Huntington State Beach so far this year, which is at least double last year's total.At Huntington city beach, 80 swimmers and surfers were injured just this week alone."Bolsa Chica has slightly a different angle at their beach and they're not as exposed to that south-facing swell direction that we experience here at main beach, so it doesn't surprise me that they've had an increase in stingray activity," Huntington Beach Marine Safety Battalion Chief Derek Peters said.Last Friday, researchers from Cal State Long Beach's Shark Lab brought a net to Seal Beach and collected a few hundred stingrays in just one area.Experts say there's a marine heatwave off parts of the West Coast. It's the third time on record that such a large swath of the Pacific Ocean has stayed warm for so long. Newport Harbor High School students Marigold Kulik and Audrey Lauritzen made it out of the water at Huntington's main beach without seeing one stingray."They're scary, though. I don't like them," Kulik said.Thermal bags are stored in the toolboxes on Huntington lifeguards' trucks. Anyone who has felt the sharp barb of a stingray knows that scalding hot water is the treatment. Water poured into the bag for a foot bath brings much-needed relief.Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
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