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Will Smith's Hancock Doing Late Reshoots

by Alex Billington
May 11, 2008
Source: SlashFilm

My good friend Peter over at SlashFilm was just sent a new photo from the set of Hancock. That's old news, right? Nope - it was taken in Times Square last Saturday night. How is that possible when the movie comes out in about a month? Apparently Hancock was doing very late reshoots in New York City yesterday, most likely as a result of the ratings troubles they've encountered that were detailed in this chat with director Peter Berg. Good news? Bad news? Neither really, but definitely interesting and worth noting. I think my interest in Hancock is definitely starting to increase the more I hear about it.

The photo below, taken yesterday, shows Will Smith in his leather superhero outfit that appears at the end of the most recent trailer. The report sent to Peter says that Times Square was packed with extras wearing 1980's-style brightly colored clothes. They shot for 12 hours total in order to get the updated footage that they needed. Principal photography actually finished last November and Peter Berg has been working on editing and the visual effects since then.

Hancock Reshoots

In the previous article that we published last week, Peter Berg had mentioned that the film "remained surprisingly sexual, violent and true in spirit to an original script," which had caused it to receive an R-rating twice from the MPAA. My guess is they hit a wall with the ratings board and had to go back and do reshoots in order to fix the issues. They can only edit, trim, and resubmit so many times before they realize the footage they have is R-rated no matter what.

If anything, this could be looked upon as a good thing. Instead of using the Fox method of crafty editing and audio dubbing, they just opted to reshoot it all from scratch. But then again, I could be missing the entire boat with my speculation and it could be a very bad thing. To be honest, I'm going to hold out and still hope for the best with Hancock. Although I hated it initially, I've flip-flopped entirely and now I'm hoping its great - especially with the more darker, violent side that Berg mentioned included.

Hancock is directed by Peter Berg, of The Rundown, Friday Night Lights, and The Kingdom previously. The film's script was written by over five different writers, including John August, Vince Gilligan, Akiva Goldsman, Vincent Ngo, and Peter Berg. Hancock arrives in theaters on July 2nd this summer - Will Smith's own 4th of July weekend spot.

Explore tags: Movie News

Jeremy

I think that they saw how Iron Man was so well-received by audiences that they had to find some sort of way to get audiences excited about a superhero whose powers are similar to a very cliche Superman. Since the superpowers won't be as cool as Iron Man's this summer, they can try to exploit the "darker" side of Hancock before The Dark Knight can.
Shorgin

Well with the summer movie season 2 weeks on the way, Iron Man doing very well and Speed Racer looking good to do well, I can see why they want to get that pg-13 rating compete. I do think that the darker edge they are trying for will work for them in this run. With the summer movie season, I feel off to such a strong start, they dont want this one to be a dud in the middle of the fun we all are going to have. Will Smith IS going to bring a very strong performance to this role and I can't wait to see him put his mark on a superhero style movie. Its a diffrent approch to the genere and I feel will get a good run this year. That being said, cant wait to get this one on DVD this fall, with the hope of having the unedited version 2 disk style set, to get the one they would realy like to have relesed this summer! All and all, this summer movie season is going to be a great ride!
Tracy

When has scrambling to do reshoots at the last minute ever been a good sign? That ticking we hear sounds like a bomb.
sleepykid

Speed Racer doing well? It's a a bomb with "acme bomb" printed on the side.
http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

Yeah, Speed Racerbarley hit $20M opening. Everyone was pegging it at low $30M which would be very low but $20M?!?!?! Next week it will crash from Narnia and don't expect Indy to do it any favors.
Jojo

See I told you guys speed racer will bomb. If i say something will bomb then it will PERIOD
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

This discussion isn't about Speed Racer guys... Back on topic - Tracey #3, reshoots aren't ALWAYS a bad thing... Read what #2 and #1 have to say as well. They need to pull back and stay in the PG-13 range, and, like I said, instead of editing or using CGI to fix problems, they actually went back and reshot - which is much, much better...!
sleepykid

Okay, point taken. I'm never sure what to make of reshoots but I guess Hancock will do well - there's enough of Smith's appeal in the trailers to carry it through. However, the worry may come from what's opening a week earlier. Wall-E looks like it's going to be huge and Wanted may attract those looking for more straightforward action thrills. Both may hurt that crucial opening weekend.
john

I like Will Smith but a lot of his stuff is more of the same. He really doesn't add much color to the character or story the way Robert Downy Jr has done with Iron man. (also I dont thing Mr Downey commands the same salary). Doing last minute shoots tells me they saw Iron Man and want to try and add its own wow factor. You cant tell me they weren't done shooting 1 month before release. Come on.
Ross

yesterday night...???
Pickle

Yikes! Not the old re-shoot routine. Sine Iron Man did great they are hoping to capitalize on that momentum. Re-shoots are usually the result of poor test screenings.
Djo Fortunado

Relax guys. Maybe they just "forgot something" the first time around. ;0
Tirrell

Ironman II April 30th 2010!!!