Although Will Smith plays an emotionally fragile superhero in Hancock, as a movie star he's practically invincible. By industry standards, the last genuine Smith dud was The Legend of Bagger Vance, but the actor's standing among many audiences has remained decidedly rocky. As a result, he occupies a unique corner of the Hollywood marketplace where quality and taste don't necessarily match up. Unlike, say, The Dark Knight, not many people eagerly await the latest Smith offering -- which currently has a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes -- but they'll see it anyway. Hancock is tracking well, thanks to a poster exclusively dominated by Smith's unshaven mug, and that pretty much seals its potent box office fate. Just as Smith's slapdash onscreen persona is bullet-proof, Smith himself is steadfastly critic-proof.

Which places movie in an interesting quagmire: After pulling in waves of cash, it will probably get relegated to the void of forgettable Smith fare, where spectacles offer passing amusement before scampering off forever. Hancock, however, deserves better than a fleeting moment in the limelight and a crash landing in the bargain bin. It's part of a genre that speaks directly to the modern state of blockbuster cinema: The superhero satire.

TV is not one of my vices. At the moment, I'm not watching much at all. I'm a season behind with Lost. I'm patiently awaiting the return of 24. And lastly, I'm a big fan of a wonderful show that recently stared directly into the abyss of premature cancellation and lived to tell about it: Friday Night Lights. I don't watch enough to make a pronouncement like "it's the best drama on television," but it wouldn't surprise me: the show is consistently beautiful, subtle heartbreaking, and -- most important -- amazingly well-acted (this despite its practice of casting actors in their mid-20s to portray highschoolers, regrettable but necessary given the difficulty of finding good teenage actors who can credibly portray football players).

One of Friday Night Lights' MVPs is Zach Gilford, whose Matt Saracen -- a sophomore second-stringer shoved into the spotlight in the first season after the career-ending injury of the team's star quarterback -- is the heart and soul of the show. It remains to be seen whether the shy, awkward, good-hearted Saracen is an acting creation or if Gilford is mostly playing himself (in the only other place I've seen him -- Larry Fessenden's The Last Winter -- his performance was basically the same). Meanwhile, I'm glad to see that he's been able to capitalize on Friday Night Lights to secure a couple more roles. He will appear alongside Emmy Rossum in an indie drama called Dare, and is in final talks to star in an adaptation of David James Duncan's popular The River Why.

Have we finally reached an age where practically the entire cast for a huge, highly-anticipated movie is announced not through the trades, but on various movie news websites? I think we have, and I think the name of that movie is X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Last night, we told you how Ryan Reynolds was suiting up to play Deadpool in the spin-off flick, and now Superhero Hype tells us Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) has signed a three-picture deal to star as Gambit (aka Remy Lebeau) in the Gavin Hood-directed film, due out May 1, 2009.

Gambit, a fellow mutant and member of the X-Men, "possesses the ability to manipulate kinetic energy as well as limited hypnosis. He is also skilled in card throwing, hand-to-hand combat, and the use of a Bo, " so says Wiki. When you compare a picture of the character to Kitsch, they look almost exactly the same -- so it's a good match in that department. Fans have been itching to see Gambit show up on the big screen for some time now; the character had his name show up in X2 when Mystique hacked a system holding mutant names, and he was rumored to be involved in X-Men: The Last Stand, with a bunch of actors auditioning for the role, but never showed up. Originally, he was supposed to appear in the prison convoy scene.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine will star Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Liev Schreiber (Sabretooth), Danny Huston (William Stryker), Lynn Collins (Silver Fox) and (we think) Ryan Reynolds (as Deadpool). Talk about an eclectic cast! What do you think?

OK, so the music snob in me is not thrilled that someone like David Bowie would appear in a teen romance with a High School Musical star. But, luckily I don't take these things all that seriously and I'm sure I'll get over it. Variety reports that the music legend is currently in talks to star in the musical Will. Todd Graff (Camp) co-wrote the script with Josh Cagan and Graff will also direct.

The coming-of-age story centers on an outcast teen who befriends a like-minded girl who regrettably also runs with the popular crowd. Vanessa Hudgens plays the popular girl Sam, who after struggling with a stutter, has finally made it to the cool table. Liam Aiken will play her socially inept band mate. Remember this is a musical, so the story doesn't stop with the usual 'opposites attract' teen romance. The two then go on to "form an unlikely bond through their shared love of music. They assemble a like-minded crew of misfits and form a rock group to perform in a battle of the bands competition at their school."

The cast also includes Lisa Kudrow (who really does deserve to work more; the woman is hilarious), and Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights). Bowie is still in negotiations, so there is no word on which character he would be playing in the film. Part of me hopes it will just be a cameo, à la Zoolander. Will is set to start shooting in Austin, Texas in February and should hit theaters (with or without Mr. Ziggy Stardust) later this year.

Considering how hard it is to get people to go see a Tom Cruise movie these days, it wouldn't be surprising if it was also hard to get a director who'll work with the guy. Of course, Cruise's waning bankability isn't the reason that his spy movie, the weakly titled Edwin A. Salt, has already lost Terry George and Michael Mann as potential directors. I'm not sure why they aren't doing the film (Mann apparently picked Public Enemies instead), but it can't be fears of a potentially low gross. No matter; they are out and Peter Berg (The Kingdom) is in, according to Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider Blog. Well, he's not quite in yet; Columbia Pictures is only reportedly wooing the guy, though in the end it's supposedly up to Cruise's approval whether or not he gets the gig. Interestingly enough, Berg can almost be viewed as a Mann protégé, since he produced The Kingdom and Berg's follow-up, next summer's Will Smith vehicle, Hancock (the trailer of which hit the net this week). However, it doesn't appear that Mann will have any involvement with Edwin A. Salt.

I won't admit to being the biggest fan of Berg's work (who could, really?), but I will admit that The Kingdom was one of my top ten movies of 2007. Though it's mainly on my list because all critics have to have that one obligatory mainstream Hollywood pick, I do think it was directed quite well, with a tone that perfectly suited what it was really about (American dreams of an '80s action-movie-type response to 9/11). Also, his Friday Night Lights (the film; I haven't seen the TV pilot he did) was better than most high school football movies. So, I'm excited to see what he can do with Cruise, a script from Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium) and the beginning-to-get-tired world of spies.

It's funny, for a movie that probably only ten people are looking forward to seeing in the theater, there's certainly a lot of gossip surrounding it. Cinema Blend is reporting that their sources are telling them James Brolin, Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights), Diane Ladd, and Julie Bentz are in negotiations to star in the update of the classic 80's soap, Dallas. Brolin would star as Jock Ewing, Ladd would play Ms. Ellie, and Kelly would take over from Victoria Principal in the part of Pamela Ewing.

Last April, word spread that the production had stalled, and I think most of us thought this would be the last anyone would hear about the film. But, this August, Scott brought us the news that the film was not only back on track, but this time it would be made as a comedy with Betty Thomas at the helm. There was was no more talk of Jennifer Lopez and Luke Wilson, but John Travolta is supposedly still on board to play the big kahuna himself; J.R. Ewing.

If Blend's sources can be trusted, then the film has gone back to being a drama and the comedy script has been tossed -- yeesh, can't these people make up their minds? But I would be inclined to believe that the film will be a comedy after all since Thomas has signed on to direct. Dallas is expected to go into production this summer, that is if they can ever make up their minds about what movie they are going to make. Oh, and there's also a little strike that might happen too.

For those of you hoping this is about the band, I feel you. I want nothing more than a movie explaining how Mark McGrath and the rest went from originally being a mod band to releasing a generic single like "Mean Machine" to hitting big with a completely different style with "Fly". But no, this post is about a Sugar Ray Leonard biopic. According to Variety, the boxer's life story will be made into a film by actor Kevin Pollak. Pollak will produce with his company, Red Bird Cinema, and is thinking of casting himself in the title role. Yeah, just kidding there -- he's good at impersonations, but not that good. Pollak isn't writing the film either, despite having just written a screenplay for another sports movie, 3 Nights in August, which is about 2003 baseball series between the Cardinals and the Cubs. The interesting thing is that that movie is based on a book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning sports journalist Buzz Bissinger (Friday Night Lights), who will now be scripting this Sugar Ray movie. Producing with Pollak are his Red Bird partners John Loar and Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa,

I've never been a boxing fan, nor do I care much for most boxing movies, so I can't offer too much excitement here. As a kid, Sugar Ray Leonard was just a guy who was heavily advertised on HBO while I was waiting for BMX Bandits or some other cable-TV staple of the '80s to come on. I also know that he's the person Sugar Ray named their band after. I didn't even understand as a kid why guys like Sugar Ray never fought guys like Mike Tyson, who was the only other boxer I'd heard of growing up. But despite my lack of sports knowledge, I do know Sugar Ray was a great boxer, being one of only two guys to win world championships in five different weight classes, and he had his ups and downs and went in and out of retirement a few times. I'm not sure of how dramatic his life will be on screen, but I guess he'll provide enough material for a by-the-books biopic at the very least. Now, if only Pollak can secure Sugar Ray to do the soundtrack.

So, I'm watching some of the NFL Playoffs this weekend (which, mind you, included some of the most fantastic games the post-season has given us in quite some time), when myself and a friend of mine began debating the best football-related flicks of all time. Football has always been popular on the big screen, with at least one or two films arriving each year that use the sport as their backdrop.

Usually, our football flicks come in one of three different forms: First up we have the laffer (ie: The Longest Yard), which usually consists of a group of horrible players who bumble, fumble and, with help from their brand new coach, somehow find themselves on the opposite side of losing. Throw in a montage or two (and a guy named Harold "Sticky Fingers" Lewis), and you have comedic gold. Next up is the straight-up drama (ie: Any Given Sunday), packed full of serious football playing with serious players and a serious director out to show us the real side of the game. Finally, we have the tear-jerker (ie: We Are Marshall) ... because there's nothing like watching football that makes you cry. These films usually revolve around players (or a player) who are either trying to overcome a disability or the remnants of a horrific accident.

Personally, I've always had a weak spot for The Longest Yard (the original), Friday Night Lights and, most of all, Rudy. My friend really loves Any Given Sunday, though that film never quite found a spot in my most memorable bin.

So, I ask you: What is your favorite football flick of all time?