Even though Hancock was panned by just about every critic (and most of my viewers), Hancock still managed to pull in a whopping $624 million.  So what does that mean?  Hancock 2 is on it’s way.

Director Peter Berg said at the Toronto Film Festival: “Everybody’s going to come back for a sequel.”

Berg said Will Smith and Charlize Theron would reprise their roles as immortal gods who lose their powers when in each other’s presence.

Although the script is not completed, Berg said the film would feature the lead characters pairing up to defeat a common enemy.

It is also expected to explore the 3,000-year-old world they’re from, which was only hinted at in the first film.

Jason Bateman will return as the PR executive who is married to Theron’s character and transforms Smith’s anti-superhero image.

I loved Bad Boys! Can’t wait!

Columbia Pictures is developing a third installment of the “Bad Boys” franchise, hiring Peter Craig to write the screenplay, says The Hollywood Reporter.

The studio hopes to have a script that would reunite director Michael Bay, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. At this point, with the project in the early stages, none has a deal to return.

The first Bad Boys was released in 1995 and grossed $66 million domestically and $141 million worldwide. The 2003 sequel grossed $138 million domestically and $273 million worldwide.

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It’s been a long-time rumor that Will Smith and wife, Jada are very open with their sex lives. So open that Will was said to be bisexual, having a number of male partners, while both were said to be swingers.

In a new radio interview, she defends herself and her husband against the rumors.

She says, “I’ve heard all the things — their marriage is not real, he’s gay, she’s gay, they swing. But at the end of the day, people have to believe what they have to believe.”

At this point, she says that they have no plans to try and convince people otherwise, they’re just trying to live their lives.

She says, “One thing Will and I are not here to do, is like, what’s real for us is what’s real for us, so you can either get on that bandwagon or not,” she says. “I’ll tell you what, it’s too hard to be in a pretend marriage. Life’s too short for that one.”

Agreed! Let it go already!

Source, Bauer-Griffin

The weather did it.

That was the spin from Hollywood as one high-profile film (see Jim Carrey’s Yes Man) after another (see Will Smith’s Seven Pounds) landed with a thud at the weekend box office.

“I’m of the philosophy any real moviegoer would walk through a blizzard to see the movie they wanted to see,” Exhibitor Relations’ Jeff Bock said today.

Certainly the weather, which was nasty, especially in the East, didn’t detour the art-house crowd from The Wrestler, Gran Torino, Doubt and Frost/Nixon, all of which did well in limited release.

Of course, maybe conditions were more brutal at multiplexes showing Yes Man. The grosses sure were.

On paper, yes, Yes Man finished No. 1 in the weekend standings. But the comedy’s estimated $18.2 million Friday-Sunday gross was down 40 percent from the take of last weekend’s No. 1 film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and down 60 percent from the take of the same weekend’s No. 1 film from last year, National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

For Carrey, Bock said, Yes Man was “a return to form that just did not pan out—this opened worse than The Cable Guy [$19.8 million debut in 1996].”

Yes Man came up short when judged against nearly any classic Carrey comedy, from Bruce Almighty ($68 million) to Yes Man’s spiritual forerunner, Liar Liar ($31.4 million).

For Smith, the most reliable of box-office draws, Seven Pounds, Bock predicted, will be the star’s first movie since 2001’s Ali to fail to gross at least $100 million overall.

The drama, from the same director as Smith’s The Pursuit of Happyness, debuted with $16 million, down about $10 million from Happyness’ opening on nearly the same weekend in December 2006.

Source

Did any of you see “Seven Pounds” over the weekend?  I’m DYING to know the ending, and I don’t care if you ruin the surprise.  I saw Will Smith on Oprah about a month ago – and they were talking about how “top secret” the ending of the movie is.

(One thing I hate more than anything – is when a movie is promoted as having a “shocking ending” or a “surprise ending”. It ruins it for me!  Can’t they just let us be totally surprised? If I know there’s some big secret, then I’m going to try and figure out what it is! If you tell us the end is “shocking” then is it really going to be shocking?  Okay, I’m done venting.)

On Oprah, they talked very little about the movie – so it wouldn’t spoil it for anyone, and showed a long trailer.  After watching the trailer, I decided I had the entire movie figured out.  And it irritates me.  So I want to know if I’m right.  Will someone tell me the ending?

I’m putting my guess after the jump…don’t look if you don’t want to be spoiled! (more…)

Splash

Will Smith credits Tom Cruise with his record-breaking box-office success – because the icon reviews his movie scripts before he takes on a new role.

The stars have become close friends over the years, and Smith admits he turns to Cruise for advice before signing on to a film.

Smith tells Newsweek, “I was so used to competition between other artists that I just didn’t get him at first. And then Tom just broke it down to me and said, ‘Will, we are not competing, so don’t think that way.’ That blew my mind because that is not how this business works at all…

“He looks over my scripts and everything. When I did I Am Legend, I sent him the script, and he sent me back four hours of notes and changes. He did more work on I Am Legend than I did.

“Now we’re looking at some projects to work on together because we have that basic understanding of each other.”

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