BlackTree TVThe Reel Thing: HANCOCK
HANCOCK World Premiere
Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman at the Hollywood Premier of the new movie Hancock. Also, at the afterparty, Will Smith freestyles and drops a little 'Summertime' on the crowd.
By William Keck, USA TODAYHOLLYWOOD — Jamie Foxx, Amanda Peet, Chris Daughtry, Queen Latifah and a very pregnant Minnie Driver turned up at Grauman's Chinese Theatre Monday night to watch Will Smith save the world once again, this time as an ambivalent superhero in Hancock.
But where was Smith's main man, Tom Cruise, who has turned up at almost every one of Smith's movie premieres since Cruise and Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, co-starred in 2004's Collateral?
"He still had some things to do for Valkyrie," said Pinkett Smith of her friend's 2009 Adolf Hitler assassination plot drama. "But he let us know, 'Sorry, I can't make it tonight.' "
Pinkett Smith wowed in a jade Herve Leroux gown, while her husband called himself "aggressive" for turning up in a Tom Ford checkered suit. "I was feeling sexy about myself," said Smith, 39.
A Sequel in the Works?
He also is feeling optimistic about the chances for a sequel for Hancock, which opens nationwide Wednesday. "Depends on how this one opens — and it's looking pretty good," Smith said. "And (screenwriter) Akiva Goldsman has an amazing idea for a I Am Legend 2 prequel" that would feature the return of his character's pet dog in last year's hit film.
In Smith's latest film, careless superhero Hancock uses his strength to cast vehicles aside like toy cars. Sony tried to copy some of the more violent scenes for the movie's premiere by littering Hollywood Boulevard with crashed autos covered in pieces of pavement.
Director Peter Berg, who is responsible for the film's many bang-ups, confessed to having years of dangerously close calls during his reckless youth. "I was in car accidents, boat accidents, motorcycle accidents," he said. "I've been in a lot of accidents. But Hancock's about having some fun. We're not out to traumatize anyone."
Berg shot a scene in which Jason Bateman's character, a public relations whiz who tries to alter Hancock's image, gets in a nasty car wreck. It was a scene all too familiar to Bateman.
"I was car racing once and flipped upside down doing about 130 miles per hour," Bateman recalled. "This is when I was young, dumb and full of (it) — when I was about 19 or 20. I could have used sweet Hancock to swoop down and save me from the madness."
But there was no painting co-star Charlize Theron, who plays Bateman's wife, as a damsel in distress.
Theron turned serious when asked about a time she could have used a hand from Hancock. "Maybe I don't need Hancock's help," she scolded. "Maybe you should stop looking at me like I'm a victim."
Though the evening's disaster theme seemed lost on Theron, it continued inside the afterparty, with burning cars and a correctional facility bus on site and guests dining in prison cells.
Smith's son, Jaden, who turns 10 next week, left the VIP area with a nanny and two bodyguards to hop on a bungee-cord ride. Later this summer, the Smith family will go to Bali for more fun before heading to Africa on a charity mission.
"We're going to Rwanda and Kenya to do some work for Malaria No More," Pinkett Smith said.
Turns out her husband requires but one thing while traveling the planet on missions. "Golf is really the only thing that occupies my mind other than making movies," Smith said. "If I don't have a golf course, I'm dying."
HANCOCK
There are heroes... there are superheroes... and then there's Hancock (Will Smith).
With great power comes great responsibility — everyone knows that — everyone, that is, but Hancock. Edgy, conflicted, sarcastic, and misunderstood, Hancock's well-intentioned heroics might get the job done and save countless lives, but always seem to leave jaw-dropping damage in their wake. The public has finally had enough — as grateful as they are to have their local hero, the good citizens of Los Angeles are wondering what they ever did to deserve this guy. Hancock isn't the kind of man who cares what other people think — until the day that he saves the life of PR executive Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), and the sardonic superhero begins to realize that he may have a vulnerable side after all. Facing that will be Hancock's greatest challenge yet — and a task that may prove impossible as Ray's wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), insists that he's a lost cause.
- Release Date: July 02, 2008
- Starring: Will Smith
- Directed By: Peter Berg
