No 'Hancock 2'...At Least For a Good Long While

What, no aliens to fight? Peter Berg, who is making intelligent life from other galaxies a key component of his movie version of the board game Battleship, has cooled on the idea of Hancock 2. Certainly, a Will Smith movie that makes half a billion dollars is worth looking at for a sequel (if you're the studio), so it was no major surprise that Sony was keen on a follow-up. And it was steamrolling ahead until...

Berg tells HitFix that Hancock 2 is on ice for now, and maybe for quite a while. Of his dealings with Smith and producers Michael Mann and Akiva Goldsman, Berg says, “To get us all in the same room where we can talk and then agree on anything? You'll never meet a group of people who will have a harder time agreeing on anything. It's like the Israeli peace process times a thousand in how tough it is for us all." He adds, "But I think it will happen, we just all have to get in the same room with some consistency.”

Click to read more ...

'Hancock' Sequel: Same As It Ever Was

As far as I'm concerned, Hancock is about 60% of a good movie. Will Smith is a fine choice for a comic book movie, the idea of a hero gone off the tracks works for me, too, and the backstory the character offers during the dinner scene with his publicist (Jason Bateman) and the publicist's wife (Charlize Theron) is probably the best writing in the film. So those things are sound. But I could do without almost everything else.

The sequel, announced several times already, has a chance to correct some of those mistakes and give us a much better journey for this character, especially because his humanity is what is really fascinating. But it doesn't look like that's going to happen. Director Peter Berg had previously revealed that Hancock might find another godlike hero to tangle with, and that's not too far from the action of the first movie. Now Berg tells MTV that even less will be changing.

Click to read more ...

'Hancock' Sequel Hires Writers

Director Peter Berg was talking up the possibility of a Hancock sequel recently. It was last year's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - more than any other summer movie, it skated by on what it should have been rather than what it was. A Will Smith superhero movie would naturally sell tickets, and that one did. So will the sequel.

It's being reported that Columbia has hired Adam "Pontiac" Fierro and Glen Mazzara to write what, from now on, we'll call Hancocked. Smith will return, Berg would probably do it, too, and the rest of the producing army is supposed to remain in place. It's not news that they're investigating a sequel, although I didn't expect to see an announcement quite yet.

Click to read more ...

Peter Berg Rehashing Ideas for 'Hancock' Sequel

Although it was not the best film last summer, Hancock made a ton of money based on little more than being a Will Smith vehicle. Almost immediately, a sequel was proposed, and Smith and director Peter Berg are pretty high on the idea. But what's the idea?

"There might be another god out there," Berg hinted in an interview with SciFi Wire. "Might be another one." Wait a minute...isn't that more or less the same story from the first one? Will Smith played a god whose powers were diminished only when he was in close proximity to the only other god, played Charlize Theron, right? So what's different? Apparently with three gods, it's one louder.

Click to read more ...

Will Smith Wants a 'Hancock' Sequel

Hey, who's ready for more Hancock? No, really: Will Smith says we're going to get it whether we want it or not. Actually, Hancock wasn't all bad, but oh, the movie it could have been...that's the stuff. Instead, it was a neat idea wrapped up in way too damn many effects and a third act that was just a little too Die Hard with a Vengeance for what they should have been trying to accomplish.Still, Will Smith is well be the gold standard for box office success these days, and Hancock, even with direct competition from The Dark Knight two weeks after it was released, made over $200 million in the U.S., and over $600 million worldwide. Yikes! So you can't use the argument that nobody liked the movie. JoBlo asked Smith if he'd ever play another superhero, and he shot into full-on Hancock mode, explaining that there were a lot of "unexplored characters" in the Hanockverse that lend themselves to a sequel, adding that we'd "definitely" see a part two in a few years.I'm guessing a Son of Hancock or an Evil Twin of Hancock, what about you?