Hancock

Scris de **|Weirdo.|** Mar Aug 05, 2008 12:27 pm

Hancock is a 2008superhero film directed by Peter Berg and starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman, and Charlize Theron. It tells the story of a vigilante superhero, John Hancock (Smith), from Los Angeles whose reckless actions routinely cost the city millions of dollars. Eventually one person he saves, Ray Embrey (Bateman), makes it his mission to change Hancock's public image for the better.
The story was originally written by Vincent Ngo in 1996. It languished in development hell for years and had various directors attached, including Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Jonathan Mostow, and Gabriele Muccino before going in to production in 2007. Hancock was filmed in Los Angeles with a production budget of $150 million.
In the United States, the film was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America after changes were made at the organization's request in order to avoid a "restricted" (R) rating, which it had received twice before. The film was widely released on July 2, 2008 in the United States and the United Kingdom. Hancock has received mainly poor to average reviews from film critics. To date, Hancock has grossed $215,995,000 in the United States and Canada.

Plot
John Hancock (Will Smith) is an alcoholic with superhuman powers, including supersonic flight, invulnerability, immortality, and super-strength. Though he uses his powers to stop criminals in his current residence of Los Angeles, his activity inadvertently causes millions of dollars in property damage due to his constant intoxication. As a result, he is routinely jeered at the crime scenes. Hancock also ignores court subpoenas from the city of Los Angeles to address the property damage he has caused.
When public relations spokesperson Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) departs from an unsuccessful meeting pitching his All-Heart logo for corporations who are extraordinarily charitable, he becomes trapped on railroad tracks with an incoming freight train. Hancock saves Ray's life, but he causes the train to derail and nearly injures another driver. Hancock is jeered by other drivers for causing more damage, but Ray steps in and thanks Hancock for saving his life. Ray offers to improve Hancock's public image, and Hancock grudgingly accepts. The spokesperson convinces the alcoholic superhero to permit himself to be jailed for outstanding subpoenas so they can show Los Angeles how much the city really needs Hancock. When the crime rate rises after Hancock's incarceration, the superhero is contacted by the Chief of Police. With a new costume from Ray, Hancock intervenes with a bank robbery, rescuing a cop and stopping the leader of the robbers, Red Parker (Eddie Marsan).
After the rescue, Hancock is applauded for handling the bank robbery. The superhero becomes popular once more, as Ray had predicted. He goes out to dinner with Ray and his wife Mary (Charlize Theron), with whom he reveals his apparent immortality and his amnesia from 80 years ago. After Hancock tucks a drunken Ray in bed, he discovers that Mary also has superhuman powers. He threatens to expose her until she explains their origins, and she tells him that they have lived for 3,000 years with their powers, having been called gods and angels in their time. She explains that they are the last of their kind and that their kind are paired. Mary does not tell Hancock the entire truth, and Hancock departs to tell Ray about the conversation. The exchange results in a battle between Hancock and Mary that takes them to downtown Los Angeles, causing significant damage to the area. Ray, downtown in a business meeting, sees and recognizes Mary using abilities like Hancock's.
Hancock is later shot twice in the chest and wounded when he stops a liquor store robbery. After being hospitalized, Mary enters and explains that as the pair of immortals gets close, they begin to lose their powers. She also explains that Hancock was attacked in an alley 80 years prior, where he obtained amnesia. Mary deserted him then in order for him to recover from his injuries. When he is hospitalized, the hospital is raided by Red Parker, the bank robber, and two men that Hancock had humiliated during his incarceration. Mary, visiting Hancock, is shot in the process. Hancock is able to stop two men but is further wounded by them. When Red attempts to finish Hancock off, Ray comes to the rescue and kills the bank robber with a fire axe. With Mary nearly dying, Hancock flees from the hospital so their parting would allow her to heal with her powers. He later winds up in New York City, working as a superhero. As gratitude to Ray, Hancock paints Ray's All-Heart logo on the moon and calls the spokesperson to look up to the worldwide advertisement.

Filming
Hollywood Boulevard was one of the film's practical locations

In October 2006, Peter Berg was attached to direct Tonight, He Comes with production slated to begin in May 2007 in Los Angeles, the story's setting. Berg had been midway through filming The Kingdom when he heard about the film and called Michael Mann, who had become one of its producers.The new director compared the original script's tone to Leaving Las Vegas (1995), calling it "a scathing character study of this suicidal alcoholic superhero". The director explained the rewrite, "We thought the idea was cool, but we did want to lighten it up. We all did. Before filming began, Tonight, He Comes was retitled John Hancock,and it was eventually shortened to Hancock.
Filming began on Hancock on July 3, 2007 in Los Angeles, having a production budget of $150 million. Locations like Hollywood Boulevard were designed to look damaged, having rubble, overturned vehicles, and fires. Smith's character is also an alcoholic, so for scenes in liquor stores, the art department designed fake labels such as Pap Smear Vodka for the bottles because "brown-bag brands" like Thunderbird and Night Train refused to lend their names. Reshoots were filmed in Times Square in May 2008, the late date resulting in the cancellation of the film's original world premiere in Australia on June 10, 2008^.

[edit] Visual effects

Hancock was Peter Berg's first film with visual effects as critical cinematic elements. He considered the computer-generated fight his least favorite part of the film, citing limited control in making the scene successful. According to the director, "Once the fight starts, you're very limited and you're at the mercy of your effects guys... unless they're really technically oriented, that it's definitely the time we have the least amount of control as directors." He and other filmmakers worked to cut down on the fight scene, believing that the film's success would come from the character study of Smith's character, John Hancock, similar to Robert Downey Jr.'s acclaimed portrayal of Tony Stark in the previous May's release, Iron Man.
Visual effects supervisor Carey Villegas described Peter Berg's photography as "very high energy", finding it a challenge for the visual effects crew to adapt to. Though the crew had estimated developing 300 visual effects shot at its initial bid, the final tally was approximately 525 shots. An unexpected shot was a scene in which Hancock shoves a prisoner's head up another's behind, and filmmakers initially attempted to film it conventionally, using sleight of hand techniques with cameras. Finding that doing so did not capture "the vulgarity of the gag", the crew was enlisted to use computer-generated effects. Visual effects were also applied in conjunction with the film's choreography, incorporating palm trees, twisters, and debris in the computer-generated fight scene and combining visual effects with a crane shot to portray Hancock's derailment of a freight train.

[edit] Cast

Will Smith as John Hancock, an alcoholic, down-and-out, incredibly sarcastic superhero. Smith described the character, "Hancock is not your average superhero. Every day he wakes up mad at the world. He doesn't remember what happened to him and there's no one to help him find the answers. Hancock is invulnerable, immortal, possesses superhuman strength, and can fly at supersonic speeds. To give a realistic appearance of superhero flight, Smith was often suspended by wires 60 feet above the ground and propelled at 40-50 miles per hour.
Jason Bateman as Ray Embrey, a corporate public relations consultant whose life Hancock saves. Bateman said, "My character sees life through rose-colored glasses so he doesn't understand how people can't see the positive side of Hancock. I like being the everyman. I like being the tour guide, the one who tethers whatever absurdity might be in a film and helps make that tangible to the audience.
Charlize Theron as Mary Embrey, Ray's wife. Theron described Mary, "She makes this conscious decision to live in suburbia and be this soccer mum to her stepson and be the perfect wife—she lives in this bubble. But when people do that it usually means they are hiding some characteristic inside themselves that scares them. That is Mary's case. She knows who she is and what she is capable of. I find it very complex when I get to play women like that.
Eddie Marsan as Red Parker, a bank robber. Having previously filmed the low-budget Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Marsan found the transition to the big-budget Hancock to be a shock. Said Marsan, "I went from being in a car with Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky to blowing up a bank in downtown LA.

am vazut filmul......atata m'am ras..... :histerical lau ......hancock asta ii d toata groaza=)).....alcoolist q puteri supranaturale=))

Scris de **^^NoNo>.<** Joi Iul 15, 2010 12:37 pm

l'am vazut dar numai de la jumatate:D
imi place gagica blonda cu puteri^^

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