The first trailer for Will Smith's new flick has just arrived online, and it's called Seven Pounds ... and it was directed by Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) ... and it definitely looks like one of them tear-jerkers. (For those obsessive, need-it-right-now folks, you can watch the trailer after the jump.) In the film, Smith plays a guy who's feeling guilty about mistakes he's made over the years, and so he decides to help change the lives of seven total strangers. In doing so, he winds up falling in love with one of the aforementioned strangers, played by Rosario Dawson. So here we have a movie about giving to others, it comes out December 19 (right in time for Christmas), and it stars our most precious A-list actor. Mmmm ... makes you just wanna wash it all down with a slice of apple pie.

Seven Pounds marks Big Willie's second trip to the multiplex this year, after first starring in the summer superhero action/adventure Hancock. A quick glance at his previous two films spots a similar pattern of action blockbuster and quiet drama -- and even though Smith will always guarantee you great numbers on opening weekend no matter the genre, one wonders which version of the man you all prefer? For ten bucks, would you rather spend it watching Will Smith kick ass on a $200 million budget, or would you prefer to spend the time with his gentler, Oscar-nominated side? Or, would you rather watch the man star in more straight-up comedies, a la Hitch?

How do you like your Will Smith?

Related: Fan Rant: Will Smith Needs to Play a Villain

The trades apparently read yesterday's tirade about their not being any news -- because as weird luck would have it, everything hit the wire as I was getting my Anderson Cooper fix. (I'm not making that up for the sake of cuteness, it's true. The evening is not complete until I discover I lost the 360 Challenge ... again) Now, to the headlines:

• Being the sole man alive never meant you couldn't get a franchise! Variety reports that Warner Bros is putting a prequel to I Am Legend into production. The prequel boasts the return of Will Smith and director Francis Lawrence, and is based on a script outline cooked up by Smith, Lawrence, and producers Akiva Goldsman and James Lassiter. Obviously, it takes place before the plague wiped out New York. I hope they go daring and all Terminator 3-ish, and show Smith as being the scientist responsible for the whole mess. I also hope they name it I Will Be Legend.
  

• Top Cow continues its slow takeover of comic book movies -- IESB reports that Fathom movie is back on, despite creator Michael Turner's untimely death. And reportedly, Cinematical's ever present friend Megan Fox has snagged the lead as Aspen Matthews. It's all from anonymous sources, but given that Magdalena and Witchblade are on their way, I wouldn't be surprised if it's made official before too long.

• Who needs Iron Man and Samuel L. Jackson cameos? September 30th brings, at long last, your chance to finally own David Hasselhoff's Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D on DVD. Don't think you can pick this up just anywhere, though, it's exclusive to Best Buy. But what price to pay for a cult classic?

It's a quiet day on the news front -- mostly casting rumors shot down before I even had a chance to hear them. Now I get to do the same to you, readers!

• Will Smith is, for the last time, not playing Captain America. Rumors of Smith playing Cap were everywhere (including here) and it wasn't as crazy as it seemed. The first Captain America was African-American, after all, and the clunky title The First Avenger: Captain America could suggest they would honor that mythology. But they're not -- not only did Ain't It Cool News debunk it earlier this month, but Smith has confirmed it. In fact, he told MTV he hadn't even heard the rumor.
  

• David Boreanaz is not the Green Lantern. Rumors flew that he was in consideration, as his face was used in the concept art, but as Hal Jordan is 27 and Boreanaz is in his late 30's, he's believed to be too old. (So that happens to actors as well as actresses? Good to know.) Latino Review has a script review up -- I'll refrain from posting anything here as it's kind of spoilerish but in short, they love it. For those avoiding the spoilers of LR, I'll leave you with a quote from The Pulse's chat with the film's writer Marc Guggenheim. He was fresh off the rewrite, and promises that it's "an incredibly faithful rendition of the character."
  

• Brett Ratner says he was once part of the J.J. Abrams Superman -- and tells MTV that he'd like a crack at the Warner Bros reboot, especially if they are really going for a dark and edgy take. Will the film unexpectedly switch from day to night halfway through to illustrate this darkness?

• A Paramount preview in London let fans peek at GI Joe and Star Trek. The former was iffy, with the action being stylized, typical of Stephen Sommers, and complaints of the character development being "terrible." What was seen of Trek suggested "immense fun." I am chomping at the bit to see some footage of that flick -- and despite having once worn a Star Trek: The Next Generation uniform, I am the furthest thing you can find from a Trekkie.

Sparse offerings indeed, readers. What will we talk about? How about arguing whether or not Boreanaz has enough of a baby face to play Hal Jordan? Or how you knew G.I. Joe wouldn't be very good? Fire away!

Just when you thought Marvel was trying to get a blue-eyed, blonde-haired muscle head to play Captain America in their upcoming live-action flick, MTV sneaks onto the scene with one whopper of a rumor. While speaking to Derek Luke about Miracle at St. Anna up in Toronto, the actor let slip that, as far as he knows, Will Smith was offered the part of Captain America. Bet you didn't see that one coming.

Now keep in mind this is just a rumor right now -- and Luke could either have the wrong info or he could be screwing around; we don't know. However, I wouldn't put it past Marvel to switch things up and throw Smith into the role. Not only did Smith do a fine job as a homeless, alcoholic superhero in need of rehabilitation in this summer's Hancock, but the dude would guarantee a gigantic opening box office. As MTV points out, Marvel has changed the color of characters before; most notably with Nick Fury (who used to be a middle-aged white man, and was recently played by Samuel L. Jackson in Iron Man).

Hey, I'm all for it. We're close to electing the first African American president in the United States, so why not bring on the first black Captain America*? Just makes the eventual Avengers flick that much more interesting, huh?

The First Avenger: Captain America is due in theaters in May, 2011.

*Actually, Smith would technically be the second black Captain America; Isaiah Bradley (name of character) was the first.

UPDATE: AICN tells us that Marvel has debunked this, saying they've never offered Will Smith the role.

Will Smith really wants a crack at the ancient history epic, and this time it looks like he's going to get it. According to Variety, Smith has hired the go-to guy for historical epics, Randall Wallace, to pen The Last Pharaoh for him to star in.

It won't actually be about the last pharaoh of Egypt (Cleopatra still holds that distinction),
but Taharqa, a member of the Nubian dynasty of Egypt, who ruled from 690 to 664 B.C.E. Mentioned by Greek historian Strabo as one of the greatest military tacticians in the world, he's believed to be Tirhakah, king of Ethopia, who's mentioned in the Old Testament as driving Assyrian king Sennacherib away from destroying Jerusalem. Taharqa wasn't just a fighter, though -- he was devoted to peaceful works like restoring temples, and building sanctuaries all over Nubia and Egypt. Nevertheless, his biggest claim to fame is fighting the Assyrians, who invaded Egypt in 677. He didn't exactly defeat them -- they took Memphis and established the 26th dynasty, and Taharqa was driven back to Nubia, where he died in 664.

It definitely has the potential of an action packed story, but I'm curious as to how it's going to be fleshed out. With Wallace (nearly) at the helm, I am willing to bet Taharqa will become a mix of King Leonidas and William Wallace. The saving of Jerusalem is, I think, the high point of the story and has the most historical relevance ... but it's not as romantic as defending one's homeland, and that's reportedly what the film will focus on. And Wallace's scripts tend to be heavy on the romance, iffy on the accuracy. Still, it will be very interesting to see Smith in a sword-and-sandals epic, and I'll watch ancients hack each other onscreen anytime. What about you?

Over the last few years, Italian director Gabriele Muccino has been busy with superstar Will Smith. He helmed The Pursuit of Happyness, and just wrapped up Seven Pounds. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's cooking up a Kramer vs. Kramer style film that may or may not involve Smith's production company, Overbrook.

The project, titled What I Know About Love, is being written by Muccino along with the writer of Sex and the City, Liz Tuccillo. The director says: "It's the story of a family's collapse, but with the complexity that relationships have today. It's a different world now, one that I think is more open and more destructive somehow."

Considering the fact that Smith has starred in both of Muccino's recent films, I imagine that there's a decent chance that this film could be led by the ol' Fresh Prince as well. Smith brings the butts to the seats. Whatever happens, this should keep the filmmaker busy for a while with familial issues. He's also got an immigrant film called Man & Wife in the works.

The biggest movie star in the world has another July 4th notch in his belt. His fourth huge Independence Day release (fifth if you count Wild Wild West, which came out June 30th) is also his biggest: the outrageously underappreciated Hancock had a $66 million 3-day weekend, and $107 million over the five-and-a-half days from Tuesday night through Sunday. It's the third-best 3-day of the year, behind only Iron Man and Indiana Jones. The figure is skewed since the movie came out on Tuesday and Friday was a national holiday, but that's the stat.

The wide release of the critically acclaimed Kit Kittredge: An American Girl didn't go over too well: the movie took in $3.6 million on over 1800 screens. Not too surprising given its extremely narrow target demographic, but I was expecting it to expand a little bit stronger.

Wall-E took a pretty harsh 47% hit in its second weekend -- 30-40% has been more standard for recent Pixar releases -- but its $128 million cume is nothing to cry about. Wanted had it even worse after last week's surprisingly robust debut, dropping 60% to $20.6 million for the weekend and $91 million total. And no one wants to see The Love Guru, which dropped out of the top 10 in its third week and won't make it to $40 million.

The full 3-day top 10 after the jump.

Can you make a summertime movie that gives audiences excitement, adventure and real drama -- and still have it flop? Are Hancock's reviews missing the big picture? And does the success of Sex and the City mean that the niches of movie marketing are going to get even more narrow? Joining us this week to talk about all these topics and more is David Poland, editor-in-chief of Movie City News and author of The Hot Blog. Cinematical's podcast is now available through iTunes; you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:



As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

Okay, so we went through something similar with Frank Darabont's unused draft of the latest Indiana Jones installment, which managed to be a bit better (read: Mutt-less) compared to the still entertaining end result. Now, it appears that the original draft for Hancock -- long titled Tonight, He Comes -- has popped up by way of Jeff Wells over at Hollywood Elsewhere (read it here). Oh, and if it's authentic, it happens to be missing the next-to-last page.

I've found the behind-the-scenes hearsay -- conveniently summed up in this NY Times piece -- on this film to be fairly fascinating. First, as scripted by Vy Vincent Ngo, Tonight had made the rounds as a reportedly hard-R superhero drama that capitalized on the somewhat sexual nature of the title. However, it seems once Will Smith was brought on board, Sony saw fit to tame things down considerably.

Even as recently as April, the MPAA had twice handed them an R instead of the sought-after PG-13, and now the finished result runs a choppy 92 minutes -- distinctly shorter than indicated in AICN test screening reports which made particular mention of a subplot involving statutory rape. Of course, as Wells brings up, it's hard to ignore the involvement of producer/screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, whose recent work on Smith's last hit, I Am Legend, had a similarly slapdash second half at the compromise of the original material.

I've yet to get more than a couple of pages into this thing, but do you guys think this is the real deal, and if so, do you guys think that this is the real film compared to what's on thousands of screens this week?

Well here's something you don't see every day: A big, flashy summertime "tentpole" movie that A) takes chances, B) bucks convention, and C) takes some real risks with its subject material. Obviously the safe approach is for Will Smith to do (yet another) easily-digestible (if somewhat mindless) blockbuster like I, Robot or I Am Legend or Independence Day -- but this time the endlessly profitable Will Smith is working with a rather distinctive director who refuses to cater to formula. That director would be Peter Berg, and this guy has yet to make a bad film.

Unfortunately the production history on Hancock is not a fantastic one. There was a revolving door of directors and script polishers before Columbia finally started production -- but there were still marketing issues, last-minute reshoots, and MPAA miseries to deal with. And yet, despite all that, Hancock arrives like a breath of weirdly fresh air for moviegoers who like a little heart and soul mixed in with their hyper-kinetic action mayhem. Toss some sharp wit and an impressive display of edge into the mix, and I think you may have one of my favorite movies of the summer. (Although one can plainly tell that there was some late cutting done to the flick, all in the name of the almighty PG-13 rating, of course.)

It was a good weekend at the box office for both of last week's newbies, marking the first time in history that two films opening on the same weekend pulled in over $50 million each. Here's the top five:

1. Wall-E: $63 million
2. Wanted: $50.9 million
3. Get Smart: $20.2 million
4. Kung Fu Panda: $11.7 million
5. The Incredible Hulk: $9.6 million

Only one major release this week, but we've also got one going into wider release.

Hancock
What's It All About: Will Smith plays Hancock, a hard drinking anti-social superhero, and a PR agent played by Jason Bateman sets out to repair Hancock's public image.
Why It Might Do Well: Will Smith may not always have the Midas touch (I Am Legend left me cold) but he's got quite a few successful blockbusters under his belt, and people are loving the superhero flicks these days. I've liked Bateman's work a lot since Arrested Development, and I'm always glad to see him. Also, Cinematical's own Kim Voynar has given the film her seal of approval.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Unlike most big-budget superhero movies, this one doesn't originate from another media like comic books, so it doesn't come with the core fanbase of an Iron Man or an Incredible Hulk. Also, the 36% fresh rating at Rottentomatoes.com is not encouraging.
Number of Theaters: 3,900
Prediction: $45 million

And going into wider release this week...

Although Will Smith plays an emotionally fragile superhero in Hancock, as a movie star he's practically invincible. By industry standards, the last genuine Smith dud was The Legend of Bagger Vance, but the actor's standing among many audiences has remained decidedly rocky. As a result, he occupies a unique corner of the Hollywood marketplace where quality and taste don't necessarily match up. Unlike, say, The Dark Knight, not many people eagerly await the latest Smith offering -- which currently has a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes -- but they'll see it anyway. Hancock is tracking well, thanks to a poster exclusively dominated by Smith's unshaven mug, and that pretty much seals its potent box office fate. Just as Smith's slapdash onscreen persona is bullet-proof, Smith himself is steadfastly critic-proof.

Which places movie in an interesting quagmire: After pulling in waves of cash, it will probably get relegated to the void of forgettable Smith fare, where spectacles offer passing amusement before scampering off forever. Hancock, however, deserves better than a fleeting moment in the limelight and a crash landing in the bargain bin. It's part of a genre that speaks directly to the modern state of blockbuster cinema: The superhero satire.

Who is Hancock, where is he from ... and does he know how to get jiggy wit it? (Also, why does Jason Bateman have sparkles on his face?) Yes, it's that time again -- Moviefone has unveiled another one of their fabulous Unscripted chats, and it's a tasty one. In support of their new film Hancock, watch Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman interview each other using your questions and some of their own. Usually these Unscripted sessions come with only two people, so when they've got the whole ménage à trois thing going on, you definitely want to watch. Additionally, above you will find a clip that was left on the cutting room floor and then somehow swiped up by us janitors here at Cinematical. Watch as Smith and Theron discuss kissing one another, while Bateman chimes in with his own quirky two cents.

I won't spoil the rest for you because I'm cool like that (and smooth like that, and dope like that, and chill like that) -- so head on over to Moviefone to see the rest. Hancock hits theaters on July 2.

It seems fairly certain that Hancock will do decent business when it hits theaters this week, if only because Will Smith rarely stars in a dud these days -- especially when it's his face selling the movie before all else. Whether or not the film has staying power after opening weekend, however, remains to be seen, but Sony Pictures clearly has a lot of faith in its potential: Last week, the studio revealed its intentions of releasing the film online sometime after its theatrical run and before its DVD release, but only to users with Sony Bravia TV sets. It's a bold maneuver, one that assumes its core base of consumers actually have an interest in Hancock -- but the movie will make a profit either way, so it's a reasonable choice for this intriguing experiment.

Left in the dust by Apple's iPod, Sony continues to struggle in its search for a piece of the digital revolution. Company head Howard Stringer recently told the New York Times that the strategy for releasing Hancock "vanishes the memory of the failures of the Sony Walkman." Well, maybe. While on-demand technology has changed the way audiences consume their media, they don't like paying more money than necessary. Asking your audiences to buy a special device in order to access what, at this point, amounts to one movie -- well, that's asking a lot. But it's still a step in the right direction.

What do you think?

Since this week finds fireworks in the sky and a new Will Smith action flick in theaters (Hancock), we thought it might be fun to take a look back at Smith's previous action films and try to decide which one we like the best. We're not including all of Smith's films here, because, well, it's kinda unfair to compare, say, The Pursuit of Happyness or Ali to Men in Black or I, Robot. Perhaps next time we'll take a look at Smith's watered down, dramatic efforts, but for now we'll stick to the rock-em-sock-em fan favorites.

And since I always give my opinion before asking for yours, I'm going to say that out of all of Smith's action-adventure films, Bad Boys is my favorite. Yes, I've gone with the Michael Bay film -- kill me now! Actually, now that Smith is a huge, mega star, we don't see him in buddy films anymore -- and watching him opposite Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys (as well as Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black) was an absolute blast. The sequel(s) ... well, how about we not go there. What say you, Will Smith fans -- which of his action films is your favorite?