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It seems fairly certain that Hancock will do decent business when it hits theaters this week, if only because Will Smith rarely stars in a dud these days -- especially when it's his face selling the movie before all else. Whether or not the film has staying power after opening weekend, however, remains to be seen, but Sony Pictures clearly has a lot of faith in its potential: Last week, the studio revealed its intentions of releasing the film online sometime after its theatrical run and before its DVD release, but only to users with Sony Bravia TV sets. It's a bold maneuver, one that assumes its core base of consumers actually have an interest in Hancock -- but the movie will make a profit either way, so it's a reasonable choice for this intriguing experiment.

Left in the dust by Apple's iPod, Sony continues to struggle in its search for a piece of the digital revolution. Company head Howard Stringer recently told the New York Times that the strategy for releasing Hancock "vanishes the memory of the failures of the Sony Walkman." Well, maybe. While on-demand technology has changed the way audiences consume their media, they don't like paying more money than necessary. Asking your audiences to buy a special device in order to access what, at this point, amounts to one movie -- well, that's asking a lot. But it's still a step in the right direction.

What do you think?

If you're anywhere near New York City this weekend, you simply must check out the work of this great new filmmaker named Harmony Korine, whose strangely fantastical movie, Mister Lonely, opened yesterday at the IFC Center (it hits Los Angeles on May 9). Some readers may confuse this Korine for the angry young radical who wrote Larry Clark's teen sex drama Kids when he was 19 and later directed the startling divisive, sharply confrontational films Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy.

I assure you that the 1990's-era Korine is long gone -- or, rather, has morphed into an agreeably warmer artist. Mister Lonely, which stars Diego Luna as a Michael Jackson impersonator and New German Cinema legend Werner Herzog as an eccentric priest, doesn't always make sense, but that's precisely what Korine was going for. "I've always been interested in making a perfect nonsense," he told a crowd at the Apple store in lower Manhattan Thursday night. "I never really cared much about plot. I wanted to make movies about moments that went through you, that were experiential."

Amy Poehler certainly didn't look pregnant when she showed up for a chat at the Apple store in Soho last weekend (as part of a series of talks taking place during the Tribeca Film Festival), but in retrospect, the Baby Mama star had the sprightliness of a gal with a special secret. Along with moderator and Saturday Night Live co-star Fred Armisen, Poehler really worked the room, gently mocking the crowd ("I think all these guys are waiting to get into the Genius bar") while slipping in occasional hints that she actually has an authentic strategy behind her career.

"I would like to do more serious acting," she said, not mentioning her recent voiceover work for Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil. "I've been doing sketch comedy for a long time, and it'd be nice to turn the volume down a little bit and try other stuff. I have a secret desire to be on Law & Order, but I wish I could be on an old Law & Order, with Jerry Orbach." Armisen, somewhat facetiously, said he would never tire of comedy. "It's like eating to me," he claimed.

Like many of the characters he plays, Clive Owen was reserved, astute and insightful throughout his public appearance at the Apple store in downtown Manhattan on Friday. Interviewed by American Psycho director Mary Harron as a part of a series of conversations co-hosted by Apple and indieWIRE, taking place during the Tribeca Film Festival, Owen touched on two of his recent projects while fielding broad questions about his professional interests.

Although not currently starring in any theatrical releases, Owen was in town performing opposite Julia Roberts in the corporate spy thriller Duplicity, the sophomore feature from Michael Clayton director Tony Gilroy (a special guest at the store the following night). "I read the script and thought it was brilliant," Owen said, adding that shooting was halfway done. "I'd met Tony already, and he screened Michael Clayton for me. Obviously, when I saw that, it was a no-brainer." Meanwhile, Owen has another thriller in his queue: He plays an Interpol agent fighting global arms dealing in The International, which finished shooting in New York last January and hits theaters next year. Directed by Run Lola Run visionary Tom Tykwer, The International has provided Owen with "as good a director as I've ever come across. He's incredibly on top of every aspect of filmmaking."

Our friends over at indieWIRE continue their ongoing series of discussions with filmmakers at the Apple Store Soho by bringing in director David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls) to show scenes from and discuss his latest film, Snow Angels, which opens March 7. Snow Angels, which stars Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, Amy Sedaris, Olivia Thirlby, and Griffin Dunne, is about two romantic relationships -- one just beginning, and one beginning to end. If you live in NYC, this should be a great filmmaker discussion to check out. The event happens Wednesday, March 5 from 7:00-8:00PM at the Apple Store Soho, 103 Prince St.; seating is first-come, first-served, so you might want to get there early.

In the meantime, you can read our review of Snow Angels from Sundance 2007, and listen to James Rocchi's interview with David Gordon Green from that fest.

As reported by Variety (and just about every tech site on the planet), Steve Jobs' keynote address at MacWorld 2008 on Tuesday morning included details on Apple's new movie rental plan. The gist of it is that Apple TV users will be able to rent and download movies from all the major Hollywood studios directly from iTunes. The details, though, are where things get squiggy.

As our sister site Engadget promptly pointed out, while the firmware for Apple TV is changing, the hardware is not, so built-in limitations remain. Example: HD resolution is limited to 1,280 by 720. Also, DD 5.1 sound is not available with all HD rentals. In addition, HD movie rentals will only be available through and on the Apple TV, and the rental price only covers playing the movie on the Apple TV -- no moving it to your iPod for free.

The "new releases" rental price is $3.99 for standard-def and $4.99 for high-def; "library" titles are a dollar cheaper for each format. About 100 HD movies will be available for rental starting in February. You'll have 30 days to watch the rental, but once you start watching, you have to finish within 24 hours. New releases will not be available until 30 days after the DVD release date. Still, Apple promises "instant movie gratification" because downloading starts immediately and with standard-def movies you can start watching "in seconds."

To me, this is very much Apple's version of "On Demand" programming for cable and satellite systems. On my local system, I pay $3.99 for standard-def movies, $4.99 for high-def and $1.99 for "library" titles (older films in standard-def). The rental period of 24 hours starts immediately. In order to get that, I have to pay a monthly equipment rental fee for a cable box. With Apple TV, you pay your hardware fee up front: $229.00 (for a 40gb box) or $329.00 (for a 160gb box). If you rent a limited number of movies and don't have/want cable or satellite, this could be a good deal.

Is the idea of renting through downloading sounding any more appealing to you now? Or will you stick with an online rental service or the good old neighborhood video store?

Downloading movies to watch on your personal computer has been a viable option for several years, but getting those downloaded flicks to play on your TV has been problematic. I thought Apple TV would provide an easy solution, but it's been described as one of the worst tech products of the year and even its defenders acknowledge that it's limited in its capabilities -- it's more for piping your own music, images and videos to play on your TV. That may change if Apple makes it possible to rent movies directly from the device, but the battle for control of your TV is just heating up.

Online rental power Netflix has announced that they are working with LG Electronics to "develop a set-top box for consumers to stream movies and other programming from the Internet to HDTV's." Delivery is expected in the second half of 2008 with more details expected to be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show next week. The statement claims that more than 6,000 movies and TV episodes will be available to be "delivered instantly" over the Internet, but also indicates that high definition content is a future component of their plan. In reporting on the press release, the Associated Press notes that similar devices from Apple and Vudu run from $299-$399, but no prices have been announced for the Netflix/LG box.

To my mind, the competition for Apple TV and Netflix/LG is more with set top boxes from cable and satellite providers than with personal computers. Apple TV and Netflix/LG both require up-front payment for still another box in your living room, while cable and satellite providers do not. Netflix says subscribers will have a certain amount of access, depending on their subscriber plan, while everyone else appears to have a pay-per-view model. Potentially, though, Apple and Netflix could offer much greater choice of content. Still, no one's talking much about offering more high-def content this year. Will that wait until the great "analog to digital switch" next year for broadcasters and content providers?

For the last official Monday Morning Poll before 2008 comes rolling in, I thought we'd tackle a topic that will be talked about a lot throughout the month of January and well into the new year: Movie downloading. Or, more specifically, renting your films online through iTunes. Chris told us recently that Apple was gearing up to launch a service that would allow folks to rent films through iTunes (with an official announcement expected to land during next month's MacWorld). As of now, iTunes only allows users to download films for purchase, and not rentals. However, the majority of people would rather rent, and so this new service -- coupled with a familiar name like iTunes -- could revolutionize the entire rental industry come 2008.

Add to that the fact that Variety has just announced Apple's first studio partners in the rental game: 20th Century Fox and Disney. Other studios like Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM -- all of whom already make titles available for purchase on iTunes -- are expected to join the club as well. While on-demand rentals are nothing new, being able to rent and download directly to an iPod is new ... and very exciting for some. Me? I'm not hip enough to start renting and downloading online, and so I'm not yet prepared to dive in. But I am curious to know how many of you will be scarfing down iTunes' new video rental service? Is this a big deal? Or not so much?

Come Tuesday, if Santa pulls through, I'll have my first real iPod (I don't count that Shuffle marked with my old employer's logo, which I got for free). It isn't that I couldn't afford one before; it's more that I'm finally caving in. But at least I'm caving in at a good time. There's talk that iTunes movie rentals could finally be arriving in early 2008, and if they are somehow allowed to be transferred to iPods, then I'll be a very happy subway rider. Sure, we've been hearing about the possibility of iTunes rentals all year, and back in September, Engadget even pointed out an error made by Apple that was evidence that it was coming soon. Three months later, Video Business is passing along the rumor that Apple may announce the service at MacWorld next month. Apparently the developments have been slow going because Apple has been trying to get more of Hollywood's studios on board (currently iTunes only offers movies for purchase from Disney, MGM, Lionsgate and Paramount). We can expect to hear about new additional distribution partners at MacWorld, too.

According to Video Business, the iTunes rentals are likely to only be watched on a PC or via Apple TV, for which Apple is to introduce a software update that will allow rentals to be downloaded directly to the machine (making it like a DVR, sort of). However, considering the new iPod Touch (this is the one that made me cave in) features the iTunes store and can directly download movies from the web via Wi-Fi, I don't see why it wouldn't be able to play movie rentals, as well. If Apple does it right, this could be the new Netflix -- of course, iTunes would have to have some kind of monthly plan, which I doubt they'd do, at least not at first. Last summer it was reported the prices for rentals would be $2.99 each. That's still a whole lot better than the $14.99 for new release purchases. Santa, if you read Cinematical, please don't fail me. And if you happen to know Steve Jobs, tell him not to fail me either.

Reason number #307 why I sometimes wish I still lived in New York City, in spite of the ridiculous cost of living there: There is so much cool film stuff going on there on any given night of the week. Case in point: our friends over at indieWIRE continue their series of monthly presentations with Apple Store - SOHO Wednesday night from 7:30-8:30PM with NYC-based film producers Jason Kliot and Joana Vicente.

Kliot and Viencte are the producing team behind some awesome indie fare, including films by Brian De Palma, Jim Jarmusch, Hal Hartley and more. The pair will discuss their producing partnership at the event -- they're responsible for films like Coffee and Cigarettes and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (they've produced over 30 films, so no doubt they have way more to talk about than will fit into a one-hour program). But wait, that's not all!

They'll also be showing scenes from De Palma's Redacted, which just played at Toronto and is showing at the New York Film Festival on October 10 and 11. Wednesday's even will be hosted by indieWIRE Editor-in-Chief Eugene Hernandez, and best of all, it's FREE, so you can even afford to go get a nice coffee with all your film geek friends after and talk about it. Seating is first come, first served, no RSVP required.