hancock Tagged Articles at Cinematical

A few weeks ago, Hancock 2 went from being some enthusiastic Will Smith talk to hiring some scriptwriters to make it a reality. It was unknown if anyone but Peter Berg and Will Smith would return for a sequel, but according to Variety, Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman will also be back for more strange super-heroics.

The news comes courtesy of Peter Berg, who let the news slip today while at the Toronto Film Festival. "Everybody's going to come back for a sequel." However, Sony stressed that none of the talent has been officially signed.

Berg also revealed some of the secret plot details -- and here we venture into spoiler territory for Hancock, so look away if you want. Theron and Smith will reprise their roles as "immortal gods," who lose their powers when they hang around each other for too long. Nevertheless, they must pair up to destroy a third "entity," which I'm guessing is either some kind of alien or another god. The movie will also explore their 3,000 year old home world which was only hinted at in the first film. Bateman will play the humble PR executive, though I wouldn't be surprised if he's revealed to have some kind of superpower at the end! No release date for Hancock 2 has been set, and the film is still in the early writing stage, but I bet you'll see this kick off just in time to compete with the next slate of Marvel films.

The superheroic team of Peter Berg, Will Smith, and Columbia have been bantering about a Hancock sequel since last July, so it's no surprise that it's gone and become official. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Columbia has hired Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara to bring back the boozy immortal. Berg is expected to return as director,
though THR is mute as to whether Charlize Theron or Jason Bateman will be reprising their roles. (Given the way the last film ended, it could really go either way, couldn't it?)

While the plot is being kept under wraps, Smith already gave a few hints last winter. Smith says that the Hancock universe was "full of unexplored characters" and that we would meet them in a sequel. He certainly was a character with a long history, and a whole "last son of Krypton" thing going (I'm trying not to spoil anything), so I could see a sequel venturing into some kind of Phantom Zone territory. Or maybe they'll go downright Biblical with his immortal lineage. Who knows! It's too early to know!

When I last reported on a return to Hancock, a lot of you were intrigued by the idea of a prequel exploring his illustrious and godlike past than a sequel starring a reformed and purposeful hero. I guess all hope of a true origin story is shot, but maybe they will cater to your comments, and fill it full of flashback sequences! After all, Smith has The Last Pharaoh on his slate, so they'll have plenty of ancient sets and costumes available!

Will Smith, his production company Overbrook Entertainment, and Sony have bought the rights to the life story of Hurricane Katrina hero, John "The Can Man" Keller. While John Lee Hancock will be writing the script and directing The American Can, Sony has also bought a spec script about Keller from writer and producer Adetoro Makinde. Keller himself is also one of the associate producers.

Keller, who was a resident of the American Can Company at the time of the storm, helped the other residents of the building -- many elderly and/or handicapped -- and a few refugees stay safe while the flood waters raged outside. Keller also documented his story with photos and videotape. He told The Times-Picayune in 2007, "There were other people rescuing people. But they didn't hot-wire boats, hot-wire cars, swim to the grocery store, come back with food, cook for all those people, organize them, get the thugs off them." In the end, 244 people were evacuated safely with help from Keller.

Yesterday I shared the news that Roland "Irwin Allen Part 2" Emmerich had been tapped to direct an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation. Near the end of the article I opined that either Ridley Scott or Peter Berg would have been my choice to direct this film. Now, obviously the man who directed A L I E N and Blade Runner would be a great choice for an Asimov adaptation, but Peter Berg? Did I actually THINK about that choice? Readers didn't seem to think so:

"Peter Berg? Are you smoking crack?" / "Berg has done NOTHING good, so I can't see the reasoning/logic behind that choice AT ALL." / "How do you go from Sir Scott to Peter Berg?" / "Peter Berg? F off."

So yeah. Obviously I have no problem with people disagreeing with me, but here's the thing: In my opinion, Peter Berg has yet to make a sub-par film. Yep, seriously. Very Bad Things? Love the audacity. The Rundown? A perfect weekend time-waster. Friday Night Lights? One of the most unexpectedly fine football flicks I've ever seen. The Kingdom? Plain old excellent. Hancock? Well, I simply loved it.

So yeah: I'll stick to that request. Sure, Berg has yet to do a sci-fi flick, but I bet he'd do a fine job of it. Feel free to abuse me further. I can take it.

Superhero movies are like Lay's potato chips (it is Lay's, isn't it?) -- you can never have just one. JoBlo caught up with Will Smith during his press rounds for Seven Pounds, and asked him if we would ever see any more of his reformed superhero, Hancock. The answer? "Definitely."

In fact, Smith is uninterested in ever playing another superhero because there's enough franchise potential in this one. He told JoBlo that there's plenty of unexplored characters in Hancock's universe that would be ripe for a sequel -- and that we'll find out who they are in an eventual sequel. It's not expected for a few years, which is puzzling. It did well at the box office, but it wasn't particularly memorable. In two or three years, will anyone actually remember Hancock enough to flock to a sequel? Won't their brains be overloaded with all those Marvel and DC movies? Shouldn't Peter Berg and Smith while the iron is relatively hot?

Then again, we are talking Smith. He's the King of Summer. The iron is always hot. Audiences will probably flock to see him whether or not they remember the original film or not. Let's turn it over to you guys -- are you up for a Hancock sequel? Do you see the unexplored characters and potential that could keep Hancock competing with Marvel and DC for years to come? Or was he just a summer one-shot?

Now that we've entered the final month of the year, look for our site (and several others) to spend some time looking back at 2008. We here at Cinematical will kick off our year-end festivities real soon, but in the meantime Yahoo Movies was first out of the gate with a list of the most popular movie trailers of 2008. Keep in mind this is only according to Yahoo's numbers and represents the most watched, not necessarily the best (we'll have that list later this month).

As expected, a good majority of this list is made up of big summer blockbuster-type stuff, and guess which flick leads the pack? Yup, the one with that damn bat. The top two (Dark Knight and Indiana Jones) don't surprise me in the least, but the next two are ... Twilight (3) and The Incredible Hulk (4)? Really? Those vampires even beat everyone's favorite boy wizard, Harry Potter, who came in at a disappointing sixth on the list, behind Iron Man. Check out the titles below -- anything surprise you? Did you expect Twilight to take the third spot behind whoppers like Dark Knight and Indy? Sound off ...

1. The Dark Knight
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
3. Twilight
4. The Incredible Hulk
5. Iron Man
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
7. Wanted
8. Hancock
9. Sex and the City
10. Kung Fu Panda

Hancock
As Thanksgiving approaches, we've got the wild superhero Hancock crashing into shelves. While it might have been led by mega-star Will Smith, it didn't get much love from critics and certainly bowed in the shadows of some old-school, established superheroes. That being said, it's still Will Smith and is said to have a powerful start that just falls flat. Teamed with a bunch of solid special features, it's worth a glimpse. Rent it.

Meet Dave
And then there's Eddie Murphy. In his latest wacky film, Murphy gets to play a human spacecraft for a bunch of tiny aliens. The DVD holds the obligatory extras -- gag reel, deleted scenes, alternate ending -- but I'd still say Skip it, even if the box office still gives the dude love.

Freaks and Geeks Yearbook Edition
No, this isn't a film. But considering the fact that this is Judd Apatow's baby, and starred the likes of big-screen names Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, James Franco, Samm Levine, Seth Rogen, and Jason Segel, it's certainly a great addition to any DVD shelf. Tons of extras, tons of fun. Buy it.

Other mainstream releases: Superman Doomsday, Space Chimps, Fred Claus

...and yet still managed to be a damn good movie? Well I sure thought it was, anyway, even if the Tomato-meter doesn't seem to agree with me. I said lots of nice things about the flick back in my original review, but I also longed to see Peter Berg's original cut. The one that wasn't sacrificed at the altar of the demigod known as PeeGee-Thirteen.

So hey! Hancock comes out on DVD next week, and guess what? Two different versions! (Three if you count the Blu-Ray, which offers both versions in the same package.) OK, so according to this DVD cover, the theatrical cut runs 92 minutes, while this DVD cover clearly illustrates that the Unrated Cut goes about 102 minutes. And you don't need t snip a full ten minutes just to excise a few F-bombs. Needless to say, I'm very enthused about checking out the "unrated" cut -- but they don't actually call it a Director's Cut ... so could we be looking at another DVD somewhere down the line? (What a shocking assumption, I know.) For more on the Hancock DVD, check out this review that I'll read in about a week. But I trust the source.

The first trailer for Will Smith's new flick has just arrived online, and it's called Seven Pounds ... and it was directed by Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) ... and it definitely looks like one of them tear-jerkers. (For those obsessive, need-it-right-now folks, you can watch the trailer after the jump.) In the film, Smith plays a guy who's feeling guilty about mistakes he's made over the years, and so he decides to help change the lives of seven total strangers. In doing so, he winds up falling in love with one of the aforementioned strangers, played by Rosario Dawson. So here we have a movie about giving to others, it comes out December 19 (right in time for Christmas), and it stars our most precious A-list actor. Mmmm ... makes you just wanna wash it all down with a slice of apple pie.

Seven Pounds marks Big Willie's second trip to the multiplex this year, after first starring in the summer superhero action/adventure Hancock. A quick glance at his previous two films spots a similar pattern of action blockbuster and quiet drama -- and even though Smith will always guarantee you great numbers on opening weekend no matter the genre, one wonders which version of the man you all prefer? For ten bucks, would you rather spend it watching Will Smith kick ass on a $200 million budget, or would you prefer to spend the time with his gentler, Oscar-nominated side? Or, would you rather watch the man star in more straight-up comedies, a la Hitch?

How do you like your Will Smith?

Related: Fan Rant: Will Smith Needs to Play a Villain

It's difficult (and a little silly) to try and judge an entire quarter-year's movies in one lump sum -- but that's what we seem to do at the end of every Summer Movie Season. That's when all our excitement, expectations, and final reactions come colliding together and we find ourselves thinking: "Was I actually looking forward to that piece of crap for four months?" But to me, each summer is like a walk through a carnival: Some of the attractions dazzle me, others simply don't interest me, and a few are just a waste of tickets. But once early May rolls around, I'm always ready for another trip to the Hollywood Movie Carnival. (It's where you find all the tentpoles!)

So while I'm elated to greet the upcoming season of "prestige movies," there's little denying that we've had one hell of a good summer, cinematical-ly speaking. I'm not talking about box office grosses, because frankly that stuff is so unimportant. What matters is that we got some good flicks, a few pieces of mindless (yet well-made) popcorn adventures, and even a few great films that will enjoy a very long shelf life. So while I'm not exactly sure that 2008 represents the finest Summer Movie Season of all time, I'd definitely say it was more good than bad. But if you can think of a summer that was better than this one, you know where to throw your comments. (In the comments section.)