HANCOCK IS COMING

Original source of pictures (http://www.dvd-forum.at/1105/news_kino.htm)

Peter Berg's upcoming action-comedy HANCOCK is pretty much assured to rake in about half a billion dollars in world-wide ticket sales this summer. Why? Will f'ing Smith. If he can make a passable horror movie like I AM LEGEND reach those box office heights, I'm willing to bet that his first attempt at the superhero genre will be no stranger to blockbuster business. However, there is one thing that really makes me curious about this flick. The tone. What kind of movie is this? If you've seen the trailer, you may have picked up on a different vibe than you normally get with most big-budget superhero movies. The idea of HANCOCK is pretty interesting: an alcoholic, sloppy superhero named Hancock (Smith) is better known for doing more damage than actually good. He's got a bad reputation but continues to save the day when needed. In an effort to become more savvy with the public, he hires a PR exec (Jason Bateman) to help him remake his image. Along the way, he gets romantically involved with the PR exec's wife, played by uber-hottie Charlize Theron, who may or may not be a super-villain of some sort. Berg, coming off of the awesome action flick THE KINGDOM, is working again with that film's producer, Michael Mann, on HANCOCK. For a while, Mann, among many other big name directors, was attached to direct HANCOCK. He got too busy with other projects and recruited Berg for the job. The script was written by Vincent Ngo (a freqent Tony Scott collaborator), and was sold (around 8 years ago I believe) for big, big bucks in a heated studio bidding war. Vince Gilligan (THE X-FILES) was brought in to work on the script as well. The word was that it was a dark, unique, and subversive superhero movie that still blew a lot of shit up along the way. Berg, again working with his FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS cinematographer Tobias Schleisser, has apparently given HANCOCK a more verite feel, which has become his standard aesthetic style. Along with INDY 4 and THE DARK KNIGHT, HANCOCK is one of my most anticipated films of the summer.