You may have forgotten that Will Smith and Jay-Z were planning to remake Annie, with Willow Smith taking the coveted lead part. And it’s only fair that the thing should slip your mind. Our last update on the film was from that long ago and forgotten time of June 2011, when both producers were hoping to get Emma Thompson on board as their screenwriter — yes, the actress.

I can’t figure out if she took the offer, or if that story was even true, but: 13 months later, TheWrap tells us Aline Brosh McKenna (We Bought a Zoo, The Devil Wears Prada) will give Annie‘s screenplay a rewrite. The extent of her revisions have not been made entirely clear, though it’s said she’ll “draw on both the hit Broadway musical and the comic strips”; that makes me think her work will be somewhat large-scale. It’s one hard-knock jo–

No, no. I can’t even bring myself to complete that joke.

Afterward, THR has learned that the Waiting to Exhale sequel, Getting to Happy, has found a writer in the form of Michael Elliott (Just Wright). Boris Kodjoe has already been tapped to helm a follow-up the 1995 film, which starred Forest Whitaker (who also directed), Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston, Dennis Haysbert, Mykelti Williamson, Giancarlo Esposito, Donald Faison, and Wendell Pierce.

The film’s been in development for several months now — it’s just been a low-profile affair — in spite of Houston‘s passing in February. There hasn’t been any information regarding a returning cast — and it still isn’t clear if Whitaker will return to direct — but, in the meantime, this isn’t a bad next step.

Was Annie news something you had hoped to hear, and how do you take this? Is Getting to Happy a worthy pursuit?