Canyon Meadows Scotiabank Theatre Chinook Moviedome

- Notes provided by Sony Pictures. -

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. Disgruntled, 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 did to deserve this guy. Hancock isn't a man who cares what people think -- until the day that he saves the life of PR executive Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), and the unpopular superhero begins to realize that he may have a vulnerable side after all.

Columbia Pictures presents in association with Relativity Media a Blue Light/Weed Road Pictures/Overbrook Entertainment production, a film by Peter Berg, Hancock. The film stars Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, and Eddie Marsan. Directed by Peter Berg, the film is produced by Akiva Goldsman, Michael Mann, Will Smith, and James Lassiter. The film is written by Vy Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan. The executive producers are Ian Bryce, Jonathan Mostow, and Richard Saperstein. The director of photography is Tobias Schliessler. The production designer is Neil Spisak. The film is edited by Paul Rubell, A.C.E. and Colby Parker, Jr. The special visual effects are by Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. The visual effects are designed by John Dykstra, ASC. The costume designer is Louise Mingenbach. Music is by John Powell.

Hancock has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence and language. The film will be released on July 2, 2008.

HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO

"Hancock is not your average superhero," says Will Smith, the star of Columbia Pictures' new action-comedy, Hancock. Smith says that he was attracted to the film by the chance to bring an original, unique story to the screen -- Hancock, a superhero movie that expands the boundaries of the genre by stressing human emotion. "There's this idea that 'summer' movies are about action and that 'fall' movies are about character," he says. "Well, what happens if you take a powerful, dramatic story with rich character arcs and set it in a world with all the bells and whistles of a July 4th movie? Why can't you marry those and get the best of both worlds?"

The way that Smith and his fellow filmmakers -- producers Akiva Goldsman, Michael Mann, and James Lassiter, and director Peter Berg -- would do that was to introduce the character to audiences in an unusual way. The movie would not focus on how Hancock got his powers or chose to use them; instead, Hancock would cut a universal figure as a man in the middle of his career who hates his job and wants out. His superpowers, far from a blessing, have given him an attitude that cuts him off from the public that should be his biggest fans.

"There's only one person who could pull that off," says Goldsman. "I can't even conceive of Hancock without Will Smith playing him."

"Will was excited to play a superhero," says producer James Lassiter. "When we saw this script, we thought it was the perfect way to do this kind of movie -- an irreverent superhero you haven't seen before. Hancock is an exceptional, interesting character that breaks the mold."

With Smith on board, it was an easy task to convince Peter Berg, acclaimed for his work as director of Friday Night Lights and The Kingdom, to direct the film. "Will is one of the few movie stars who have a real confluence of skills," Berg continues. "He's talented, he's fearless and he's extremely honest. When those three elements come together, the person can play almost anything, and Will is certainly willing to try anything."

According to Michael Mann, the result is the perfect match between star and material -- a film that delivers what audiences expect from Will while also engaging them in surprising ways. "We set out to make a movie that moved between being profoundly funny and irreverent to sexy and romantic, to thrilling and then wonderfully heartbreaking. Will Smith's power as an actor is in his ability to inhabit the states of mind of this complex character in such profound ways. He is the center of gravity..." says Mann.

"Hancock is complicated," says Smith. "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. He has good intentions, but has trouble connecting to the world around him.'"

Smith says that the film is rooted in a profound human emotion. "Hancock is like the high school quarterback with all the talent in the world who can't get his attitude right," Smith continues. "He doesn't realize that the reason his team isn't winning is because his love and comprehension of the game is out -- he doesn't understand the beauty of teamwork. Being part of a group, interacting with other people, is the central, human idea. For Hancock, he finds himself in a totally isolated place until he meets Ray Embrey, who brings him back into the fold of society."

Jason Bateman takes on the role of Ray, the bleeding-heart PR exec. "When Hancock saves his life, Ray wants to pay him back by teaching Hancock how to conduct himself more appropriately and clean up his image. But for Ray, it's not just about image control -- he actually wants to teach Hancock how to be a better superhero."

"I had a lot of room to explore Ray because he is such a trusting soul," adds Bateman. "He wears rose-colored glasses, he is naïve, and he thinks he can see beyond Hancock's hard, crusty shell to his soft and chewy insides up until their relationship becomes a bit more complicated. All that made Ray a rewarding character to play."

"Charlize Theron is the musical note that fits perfectly with Will and Jason Bateman," says Goldsman. "We needed three people, all of whom the audience would want to see win; it was a real balancing act."

For her part, Theron was attracted to her role for a multitude of reasons. First, of course, was the chance to re-team with Smith, whom she'd worked with on The Legend of Bagger Vance. "Will plays the part so beautifully," she says.

Theron was also impressed by the script, which she found had rich and compelling characters. Where her husband, Ray, sees only the superhero that Hancock could be someday, Mary comes from the perspective of the average Angeleno. "She is fed up with Hancock's bad behavior which, on the surface, appears to be totally irresponsible and destructive," she says. "She is adamant that he not disrupt the idyllic life she's created with Ray and their son. But when Hancock starts to show some signs that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that he might turn his behavior around, and she still doesn't accept him, then you start to question why."

The filmmakers also raise the emotional stakes by adding Jae Head to the cast as Aaron, the Embreys' young son. Although the 11-year-old stars in Berg's series "Friday Night Lights," the filmmakers read more than thirty young actors before settling on Head. "Kid actors can be tricky," says Berg, "but Jae is untouched and uncorrupted. He lives in Texas, where his dad is a high school football coach and his mom is always with him. You get the feeling that he's just as happy being a ball boy for his dad as he is hanging out on set with Will Smith. He's a perceptive kid that's gone through a lot in his life and he understands that every day is a gift; he has a great attitude. He throws himself into everything."

Berg used his own family tradition of making spaghetti and meatballs every Sunday evening to illustrate the family's close bond. Every Thursday night the Embreys celebrate "spaghetti madness" making sure to spend at least one night a week at dinner together rather than allowing work, school or other distractions to take precedence over sharing family time.

"I ate maybe 20 plates," Head says about filming the family dinner scenes. "I forgot to eat breakfast that morning because I was so excited to get on set, so at the beginning I was happy to eat. But by the end of the day, I felt like yelling, 'Don't say the word 'spaghetti' to me!'"

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR AND PRODUCERS

Once best-known for his acting, Peter Berg has lately won over critics and audiences with his powerful and inventive films as a director.

After collaborating with Michael Mann on Berg's film The Kingdom, Berg stepped behind the camera to direct Hancock. Mann says that though Berg creates an easygoing and spontaneous atmosphere on the set, beneath the surface is a prepared and focused director. "Pete has an intuitive sense and is improvisational in his choices," says Mann, "but he's a lot more focused and intellectual than he lets on. He thinks quite seriously about everything."

"Peter Berg seems like a good-hearted little boy who wants to have fun," echoes Akiva Goldsman, "but it's a mask he puts on in order to generate an ambiance, a spontaneity, around the process. In truth he is a deeply thoughtful and very smart individual who tries to wink and nod his way out of engaging those attributes until he feels it's useful."

"Pete has a distinct voice," Smith says. "It's a style and flavor that is uniquely Pete. He's on a savant level in terms of how he shoots and how he creates. I was excited to see what would happen when Pete put Hancock, as a real dude with real problems, into a superhero suit."

"Pete has an actor's confidence that's very different from what a writer, director or producer exudes," Mann continues. "He knows when he has to hold on to a thought or an emotion and how to make a shot or a scene work for a specific actor to achieve the emotion he's looking for from the audience."

"He was very upfront and honest about how he liked to work," says Theron, recalling her first meeting with Berg. "He told me he was just going to yell things in the middle of takes. He said, 'I'm not going to cut, I don't like to cut, so I hope you're OK with that.' I had never worked that way before, but now, I can't imagine not shooting that way."

Berg was part of the team of filmmakers that came together to bring Hancock to the screen. Each one -- Smith, Lassiter, Mann, Goldsman, and Berg -- each brought something to the table that helped Hancock's journey to the big screen.

"Filmmaking is a team sport," says Smith. "For a film like Hancock, we needed as many off-center points of view as possible -- and everyone on this team is one degree off of normal. What made this a wonderful collaboration is that we all had these really strange ideas -- anyone could say anything -- and the number one idea, an idea that felt like part of the DNA of the material, would stand out."

"We formed a group where we really relied on each other," explains Goldsman. "Pete can write, direct, and produce a movie, Michael can direct, write, and produce, Will can produce and direct, J.L. can certainly produce, I can write a movie and if you put a gun to my head, I could probably direct a scene. It doesn't mean you do one another's jobs, it just means that each of us had the other's back."

"I had to keep bobbing and weaving," laughs Berg. "A group like Akiva, Michael, Will, and J.L. is like a force of nature; they kept me on my toes. Michael would come at me, bam, and then Akiva, and then J.L., who is like the silent assassin," he jokes. "We tweaked parts of the script and dialed in some details, but the credit for this story really goes to Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan.

"As an actor, I learned that it's important to get your head right and be in the right moment," he continues. "There is so much subterfuge in moviemaking that we forget what matters -- the audience, sitting in a theater, enjoying what they're watching a year after we've completed production. Will's got this saying, 'If you stay ready, you never have to get ready.' Staying in the right frame of mind makes that possible for me."

"He creates a really nice atmosphere on set," agrees Smith, "where anybody from the cast or crew can give him ideas and he'll listen. He's open and he likes to have fun so everyone enjoys coming to work. It's still high pressure and high tempo, but the work is done with a good spirit."

ABOUT THE STUNTS AND VISUAL EFFECTS

Director Peter Berg depended on a retinue of experienced artisans when it came to creating the look of the film. From his director of photography, Academy Award®-nominated cinematographer Tobias Schliessler (Dreamgirls), to production designer Neil Spisak, Academy Award®-winning visual effects designer John Dykstra, stunt coordinators Simon Crane and Wade Eastwood, and special effects gurus John Frazier and Jim Schwalm, every department worked in tandem with the others.

The overall process began with Steve Yamamoto, who created Berg's pre-visualization renderings. Like storyboards, "previz" footage has become the standard in action films, and on Hancock it was the reference guide each department would look to as the spring board for new ideas.

Schliessler, with whom Berg had worked on The Rundown and Friday Night Lights, teamed with camera operators David Luckenbach and Lukasz Bielan. A good portion of the movie was shot using the hand-held techniques Berg is known for, but with a twist: filming variations of the same sequence using different levels of camera activity and different lenses.

"I didn't want the same kinetic effect I was trying for in The Kingdom," explains Berg, "so we stabilized some of the camera work by varying more with the techno crane and dolly on this film. It also helped protect the epic size of the story of a superhero when a frenetic style just doesn't help."

In keeping with their desire to do much of the film with handheld cameras, Berg and Schliessler even strapped their cameras and operators into harnesses similar to those worn by Smith and his stunt double in order to keep pace with the action.

Stunt coordinators Simon Crane (who also acted as the film's second unit director) and Wade Eastwood supervised the details of the flying sequences as well as overseeing their customary fight scenes and chase sequences. But unlike many action movies, Crane and Eastwood were called upon to come up with less-than-graceful moves for the main character.

"It's not like Superman or Spider-Man(tm), where we would plan a nice, stylistic landing," says Eastwood. "We'd have to test and test to get an accurate landing where Hancock stumbles or falls down on his knees and has to balance himself before he can stand up, which means you have to program every point into your winch and counterweight and we'd simply have to rehearse over and over with Will. I'd always heard he was athletic and fun, and the reports weren't wrong; he was a trouper.

"My favorite gag was when we flew him sideways, lying down, about an inch and a half above the ground," he says. "It was one of our simpler rigs, but it went very fast and visually it looked great. As Hancock flies toward a stranded cop who is hiding behind a downed police car, he's traveling at about 35 miles per hour, head first, toward the car. We needed to use a separate set of winches to pivot him up so that he stops right next to the cop in a kind of sitting or kneeling position, and we had to do it all in one shot. Despite rigging the night before the shoot, we had to remove our lines during the day because of traffic, and then set it up again and test it again with weight bags before putting anyone in the rig."

Smith did as much of his own wire and harness work as was possible. "There were a couple of hairy days," laughs Smith. "Flying 100 feet above the street at night and then free falling until a wire kicks in about two feet from the ground, all in about 1½ seconds -- that drop was a real rush. It's like being on a roller coaster without the coaster. Now that was aggressive!"

Actors and stunt doubles agree the different harnesses can be constricting at the most inopportune moments, sometimes making acting and concentration difficult despite a couple of weeks of stunt rehearsals and flying practice, but rehearsal and staying limber is always the key to avoiding injury.

"Although it may look fun, everything takes planning and preparation," says Crane. "There's a lot of pressure to get the stunts right in one go because if something goes wrong, well, you don't get a second chance. That's why we test and retest. It takes a long time, but you just never want to hurt someone, and I would put my own son in one of our rigs."

"Some of the moves are awkward," explains Smith. "Even taking off from a bench can jolt you because the wires pull with such force that if you tense, you can pull your neck or your hamstrings, or put too much pressure on your knees. You don't even realize it until you do the movement a few times, then suddenly you feel nagging little injuries sneaking up on you."

"We would rehearse with Will in a parking lot," describes Crane. "We'd start slowly at first, because it's a scary move. Will was traveling over 300 feet, 50 to 100 feet in the air, at a maximum speed over 50 miles an hour -- varying his body position all the while -- and when we get up to full speed, that's when the feeling of weightlessness creeps in and we just hope he hasn't eaten too much," he laughs. "We tell every actor the key word when it comes to the harness is 'suffer.' It's going to look great, but can be harsh and sometimes painful."

"We especially rehearsed as much as we could before there was full darkness if it was a night shoot," says Eastwood, "because the most important thing is spotting the lines, spotting the pulleys up high, watching that there's no fouling of the line, everything is running smooth and all of our dynos are reading the same. When it gets dark we still inspect each point with flashlights or work lights, but unless we fell safe, we won't proceed. Some aspects are easier at night because there's no traffic, fewer pedestrians, so in the end, I'd much rather do it that way."

The opening stunt sequence of the film was one of the most difficult to film, taking several weeks in different locations, plus filming on stage against green screen to complete. When a small gang of street hoods flees the scene of a crime in an SUV, Hancock tails them in hot pursuit.

"This freeway chase was the biggest chunk of our job and the biggest challenge," Crane continues. "Not only did we close down the 105 freeway for five days and bear the wrath of a detoured public, we had to use handheld cameras to shoot cars flipping and blowing up or one car shooting over the top of another. You have to have countless meetings with Pete and the transportation department, and we worked closely with the visual effects and special effects departments. I'm a great believer in doing as much as we can for real, so the challenge is to come up with new ways of doing live action as well as effects."

Special effects veterans John Frazier and Jim Schwalm produced the physical special effects, whether producing thousands of bullet hits during a shootout, blowing up an intersection, dropping a car from the sky, throwing a bad guy through a liquor store window, or yanking a refrigerator through the wall of a house, their contribution is a fundamental ingredient in the recipe that turns creative imagery into reality on the big screen.

"The stunts and special effects were half of the process," explains Berg, "then we turned to our visual effects designer, John Dykstra. We depended heavily on all of his guys working together with stunts, camera, wardrobe, and just about everyone."

"I met with Peter Berg and Ian Bryce and got a glimpse of how Pete's mind works," says Dykstra. "He explained he wanted everything to look real, not as stylized as most superhero movies are. For lack of another term, I'd say 'documentary style': it's aggressive, using hand-held cameras, which is unusual for a very technical film. So that was the challenge."

Dykstra was also drawn to the project by the chance to work on the full range of visual effects, from digital human work for the scenes in which Hancock flies to CG destruction and the creation of virtual environments. However, the greatest and most exciting challenge for a visual effects artist is the chance to do something that's never been done before. As Dykstra explains, it goes with the territory. "One of the issues with visual effects is that the technology that exists when you begin a film is obsolete by the time you finish it, so you have to go in making assumptions that you're going to be able to invent some new technique to raise the bar," he says.

The scale of the visual effects invented for the film by the team at Sony Pictures Imageworks, led by visual effects supervisor Carey Villegas and digital effects supervisor Ken Hahn, ranged from the minutiae of falling rubble, to the intricate movement of clothing and skin against the wind in flight, to the enormity of destroying a city block seen from a distance as well as close up. The same principles in building the environment and weather conditions applied, whether the artists were creating twisters or a falling big rig or destroying a hospital.

Although it should not even enter the viewer's mind, the intrinsic problems inherent in building Hancock's clothing had more to do with the number of outfits rather than the technology. Like the average person, he changes clothes every day. He does not have a secret identity that would require him to slip into a cape and tights every time he flies or accosts the bad guys.

"Hancock flies at mach five through Los Angeles in a hoodie and shorts," describes Dykstra. "Making cloth move properly is a challenge, and then translating that movement from one type of cloth to another, keeping it consistent, and making it look real or making the patently incredible look credible (which was Pete's primary concern), is difficult, but it's also fun."

Even as he and his team faced these technical challenges, Dykstra never forgot that visual effects exist to serve the story, and not the other way around. "Hancock uses his powers on a whim," Dykstra continues, "and not everything he does is spectacular. Sometimes his actions just reflect his personality and the way he thinks or feels at the moment. That's when we stop thinking so much about the technology and engineering of what we're doing and concentrate more on how to advance the arc of the story."

Interestingly, being true to that arc of the story represented a fun change of pace for the animators, who've never worked with a superhero like Hancock before. "Because Hancock's flying style is so fast and loose, rather than being smooth and gracefully sweeping as with most superheroes, it was a challenge for the animators," Dykstra says. "Hancock just plows through whatever is in his way as fast as he can."

Green screens popped up everywhere, including San Pedro, where the production utilized the services of the city's Harbor Red Line Trolley tracks to shoot Ray Embrey's near death experience.

"If you shoot an outdoor film indoors, it shows," explains Imageworks' visual effects producer Josh R. Jaggars. "Filming real exteriors actually gives us some photographic advantages. For example shooting in hard sunlight as we did on the train tracks when Hancock saves Ray gives the scene a level of credibility that's immutable but it also challenges us to invent new ways of doing things while we're shooting."

ABOUT THE SETS AND LOCATIONS

The most important set was the Embrey house located on the back lot of Universal Studios. Sitting at the very end of the cul-de-sac on Elm Street, just around the bend from the Desperate Housewives' Wisteria Lane, the mid-century modern house was designed by production designer Neil Spisak in conjunction with art director William Hawkins and lead set designer Jeff Markwith.

Built from scratch by construction coordinator John Hoskins and his crew, the house is based on a mélange of styles but most closely resembles a streamlined modern California home that has been updated through the years, with its fieldstone and wood exterior, sleek lines, and open spaces. Spisak took the same tremendous care with the planting around the exterior, selecting split-leaf philodendron, iceberg roses and additional greenery with softer, rounded edges effectively nestling the house into the surrounding sun-dappled landscape. The house is a permanent structure with running water and electricity that will remain on the Universal lot and eventually be used for other projects. Together, the art, construction and set decorating departments assembled a home that everyone on the cast and crew were willing to purchase despite its not having a bathroom or a completed second floor.

"I thought it was a real house," laughs Jason Bateman. "In fact, I called my wife and said, 'I found our dream house!' The bad news is that it's on the Universal lot so even though the security will be great, I don't think we'll be able to get a clicker for the gate."

According to Spisak and set decorator Rosemary Brandenburg, the symbolism heavily sprinkled throughout the house was Peter Berg's idea. He requested the duo research mythology and incorporate their findings into the design.

"Pete wanted a deep back-story for his characters," says Brandenburg, "so I went through the many cultures of female goddess figures from Rome, Greece, all of Europe, Asia, Africa, and even Native America. We wanted to get the whole pantheon going but we didn't want to hit people over the head with it so we had to be selective and make sure the objects would make sense in a home."

Not only did Brandenburg tell a story with the art she selected, from paintings to sculpture and busts, even the books, musical instruments and furniture hold clues to the plot's back-story. Creating a balance between Mary, Ray and Aaron, Brandenburg took each character into consideration as she built a composite of the Embrey family home. She also secured multiples of each piece of furniture and each accessory given the extensive stunt and effects work taking place in the house.

"We needed the rooms to flow given the open nature of the space," she says, "from Mary's kitchen and living room, you can see that she's definitely in charge in a gentle way, to Ray's domain where he works as an advertising executive, to Aaron's things spread all over the house as well as in his fort in the backyard."

Hancock's dilapidated trailer features a magnificent ocean view from atop a vacant, brush strewn bluff in the Deer Creek area of Malibu. At times a refuge from a public he doesn't like very much, Hancock's home sadly resembles a deserted wasteland from which he cannot easily escape. His "lawn" is strewn with heaps of drained bourbon bottles, empty Dinty Moore stew cans, and aluminum Jiffy Pop containers.

Art director Dawn Swiderski worked with Brandenburg to develop Hancock's home -- two vintage Boles Aero Airstream trailers married together by a makeshift awning and the odds and ends Hancock finds that remind him of a richer past he cannot remember. A $5 bill portrait of Abraham Lincoln taped to his refrigerator, the pile of broken sunglasses he wears in homage to his musical hero Miles Davis, various animal tchotchkes he's drawn to collect all help define the character.

When Brandenburg finishes dressing a set, just before the cast and crew descend, she adds the final exclamation point to her department's creation by burning incense or candles she hopes are motivational. For example, in the Embrey home she burned essential lavender oils, at the hospital she used ammonia, and in Hancock's trailer, it smelled of whisky. She calls the process "smell-o-rama" and believes it sets a tone for the actors who frequently walk cold onto a finished set, having never seen the room prior to their first rehearsal on camera.

Spisak established two definite color palates for the film, assigning environments as those belonging to Hancock in hues of blue (including cooler blues bordering on white) and purple with splashes of red, or to Mary whose sets were more warm-toned, done in greens and wheat or cream colors with a pop of orange here and there. The orange and red acted as a visual bridge between the environments as well as the characters.

The production spent six weekends shooting a pivotal bank robbery sequence at the corner of Figueroa and 5th Streets. Even the bank, built in a completely raw space on the main corridor of Figueroa, was created by the art department from scratch. From the teller windows to the crystal chandeliers, every facet of the modern, efficient-looking lobby had to be seen from every angle and was put together knowing it would be dismantled in stages as the action unfolds. Similarly to the finale in the hospital, the art department had to reset and redress the sets every day with stunts and physical and visual effects in mind.

"We had to make transitions overnight," explains Brandenburg. "A wall that was solid one day had to become a wall with a gaping hole the next. And during the course of a shootout, bullets go through walls, glass breaks, charges go off, each of which takes specific planning. Continuity is complicated and scenery is scenery, it's not real, so if you want the inside of a wall to look real, you have to art-direct even that kind of detail."

Executive producer Ian Bryce is a proponent of shooting in Los Angeles and surrounding areas whenever possible. "One of the ways we help to keep movies in Los Angeles is to communicate properly with all the various authorities in town, whether it be the Mayor's office, CalTrans, other official permitting offices or with the local residents to make sure they all know what we're doing. We set a proper plan and then we try to live with it because it's really about community. Shutting down freeways, shutting down Hollywood Boulevard, shutting down a railroad line, all for multiple days, takes a great deal of care and precision and a lot of coordination with a lot of different agencies. Those were big challenges for Ilt Jones and his location department and he pulled it off as beautifully as he always does. This movie is a virtual postcard of Los Angeles."

The film's centerpiece, of course, was the highlight. Closing down Hollywood Boulevard between Orange and Highland Avenues for a week is an uncommon feat normally reserved for such auspicious events as the Academy Awards® or the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade.

"When we closed down those intersections, it made me realize the size of our production," says Berg enthusiastically. "It was crazy. Half of Hollywood came to visit us. Even Jimmy Kimmel -- we were shooting right outside his studio -- he's seen it all, and his jaw just dropped. Seeing crowds of Will Smith fans gather every day makes you remember why tourists come to this city. For them, watching a movie filming is a dream come true; it was fun being part of the Hollywood Boulevard spectacle."

ABOUT HANCOCK'S SUPERSUIT

Any good publicist wants their client looking sharp and in style, and Ray Embrey is no different. He knows perception is half the battle when it comes to improving Hancock's image so he insists that John Hancock wear a special costume fit for a superhero of his caliber.

Peter Berg turned to costume designer Louise Mingenbach (who worked for him previously on The Rundown) to create Hancock's mismatched homeless look and his super suit, as well as Mary's more classic understated wardrobe that develops into a much sleeker look later in the story. Friends since they both arrived in Hollywood twenty years ago, it took Mingenbach and Berg years to coordinate busy schedules and be able to finally work together again. She also worked closely with Spisak in terms of following his strict color palette.

Mingenbach, who acted as the costume designer on the two X-Men films and on Superman Returns, knew she had to come up with something new for such an unusual hero as John Hancock.

"Pete was pretty adamant from the beginning about Hancock not wearing spandex," she says, "which eliminated a whole section of ideas. He also said, 'No cape and no underwear on the outside of the tights!'" she laughs, recalling their conversation. "So the supersuit evolved into something tough but practical, and specifically something that Ray could have made for him.

"Given Hancock's flying record and the trouble he caused, I thought he should probably be dressed head to toe in caution yellow," Mingenbach continues. "He's a menace really, but we compromised and used just a little of that yellow in the detail. We also carried through with Hancock's obsession with eagles and included this in several pieces. But at the beginning of the story, he's just a mismatched guy who doesn't care about fashion trends, or looking good for anyone, which underlines how uninterested he is in fitting into society."

Of course, Mingenbach made several versions of Hancock's supersuit for use in water, for both flying harnesses as well as jerk harnesses and for Smith's photo doubles, who were not his identical size.

ABOUT THE CAST

WILL SMITH (Hancock/Producer) has enjoyed success in a career encompassing hit films, his own television series and multi-platinum records. He earned his first Academy Award® nomination and a Golden Globe® nomination for his portrayal of boxing legend Muhammad Ali in Michael Mann's acclaimed biopic Ali. Smith more recently starred in and produced the critically acclaimed, true-life drama The Pursuit of Happyness. His performance brought him his second Academy Award® nomination, his fourth Golden Globe® nomination and a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nomination for Best Actor.

Smith most recently starred in the blockbuster I am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence. He will next re-team with the director and producers of The Pursuit of Happyness for Seven Pounds, an emotional drama about a man who will change the lives of seven strangers.

In 2005, Smith starred in and produced the hit romantic comedy Hitch, directed by Andy Tennant. The year prior, he starred in and executive produced the sci-fi smash I, Robot, adapted from the book by Isaac Asimov and directed by Alex Proyas. Also that year, he voiced the central character of Oscar in the blockbuster animated feature Shark Tale, opposite Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie and Robert De Niro.

In July 2003, he reunited with Martin Lawrence for Bad Boys II, the sequel to their 1995 hit Bad Boys. Smith had earlier starred in two blockbusters that topped the box office in back-to-back summers. In 1996, he took on alien invaders in Roland Emmerich's science fiction actioner Independence Day. The following year, he starred with Tommy Lee Jones in Barry Sonnenfeld's sci-fi comedy Men in Black, for which Smith also recorded the Grammy-winning title song. In 2002, Smith, Jones and Sonnenfeld reteamed for the sequel Men in Black II.

Smith was already a Grammy-winning recording artist when he made his successful transition to acting in television and films. Following roles in the movies Where the Day Takes You and Made in America, he received widespread critical acclaim for his starring role in the drama Six Degrees of Separation, with Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland. In 1995, he was named ShoWest's Male Star of Tomorrow. His film credits also include Enemy of the State, opposite Gene Hackman; Wild Wild West, for which he also recorded the hit title song; and the title role in Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance.

Smith began his career in the music industry while still in high school. Teaming with his friend Jeff Townes to form DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Smith became a chart-topping rap artist. Together, they recorded several platinum and multi-platinum albums and won numerous awards, including two Grammys and three American Music Awards.

Smith's musical success led to his starring in the hit television sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," which ran for six years on NBC and earned him two Golden Globe nominations.

Continuing to record, Smith released his first solo album, "Big Willie Style," in 1998, for which he won a Grammy and four American Music Awards. In 1999, he was honored at the NAACP Image Awards as Entertainer of the Year. His next CD, Willennium, featured the hit single "Will2K" and went double platinum.

As a producer, Smith is partnered with James Lassiter and Ken Stovitz in Overbrook Entertainment, which has produced such projects as Ali, I, Robot, Saving Face, Hitch, ATL, and The Pursuit of Happyness. Under the Overbrook banner, Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, also co-created and produced the popular television comedy series "All of Us," which recently concluded a four-year run. Smith's upcoming projects as a producer or executive producer include, in addition to Seven Pounds, Lakeview Terrace, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington; and The Human Contract, which marks the feature directorial debut of Jada Pinkett Smith.

Oscar®-winning actress CHARLIZE THERON (Mary Embrey) is continuously praised and admired for her inspiring and powerful performances. The South African native captivated audiences as female serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the independent film Monster. Theron went on to receive the Independent Spirit Award & the National Broadcast Film Critics Association as well as winning the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, San Francisco Film Critics Circle, New York Film Critics Online and Southeastern Film Critics awards, the Breakthrough Performance Award from the Nation Board of Review and the Academy Award®.

Continuing with her busy schedule Theron was next seen in the drama North Country opposite Frances McDormand and Sissy Spacek for director Niki Caro. Based on the real life story of a group of women coal miners and the hostile work environment they faced on a daily basis, North Country received great praise. Her incredible performance as Josey Aimes again garnered her nominations for a Golden Globe, SAG, Critics Choice, and an Oscar®.

Theron also captivated audiences in HBO's "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers," opposite Geoffery Rush, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the Emmys.

More recently, she appeared as Detective Emily Sanders in the film In the Valley of Elah, written and directed by Paul Haggis, as well as in a film she produced called Sleepwalking, with Nick Stahl and Dennis Hopper (which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival).

She will next be seen starring in another film she executive produced, titled The Burning Plane. The Burning Plane is writer Guillermo Arriaga's (21 Grams, Babel) directorial debut. She will appear in Stuart Townsend's Battle in Seattle and in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's thriller The Road, opposite Viggo Mortensen.

Moviegoers were first introduced to the seductive charm of Charlize Theron in her feature film debut, MGM's 2 Days in the Valley, with James Spader, Eric Stoltz and Jeff Daniels. She has also co-starred alongside Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in The Devil's Advocate, with Tom Hanks in That Thing You Do and in Jonathan Lynn's Trial and Error. In addition, Theron starred in Woody Allen's Celebrity which she then followed with Mighty Joe Young opposite Bill Paxton.

In 1999 Theron starred in the Oscar nominated The Cider House Rules and in New Line Cinema's The Astronaut's Wife with Johnny Depp. By 2000, Theron was much in demand and tackled back-to-back roles in the following movies: Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance with Will Smith and Matt Damon; Fox 2000's Men of Honor with Robert DeNiro and Cuba Gooding, Jr.; John Frankenheimer's Reindeer Games with Ben Affleck; and Miramax's The Yards co-starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, James Caan and Faye Dunaway.

In 2001, Theron illuminated the screen in the Warner Bros tearjerker Sweet November alongside Keanu Reeves, as well as in Woody Allen's Curse of the Jade Scorpion co-starring Helen Hunt, Dan Aykroyd and David Ogden Stiers. In the fall of 2002 Theron starred opposite Patrick Swayze, Natasha Richardson and Billy Bob Thornton in Waking Up in Reno after which she starred with Kevin Bacon, Courtney Love, Stuart Townsend, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Dakota Fanning in the feature film Trapped directed by Luis Mandoki.

In 2005 Theron also took a turn in the hit HBO series Arrested Development as the mentally challenged girlfriend of her Hancock co-star, Jason Bateman.

JASON BATEMAN (Ray Embrey) has made the successful transition that few child actors have been able to accomplish. Currently, Bateman has starring and supporting roles in five upcoming feature films, both independent and studio projects. Since being honored with the Golden Globe Award in 2004 for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for "Arrested Development," Bateman's star has been on a rapid ascent.

While Bateman's starring role in the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award winning Fox comedy series "Arrested Development" brought a newfound appreciation with the public, it also caught the attention of the motion picture industry. Since the show ended in 2006, Bateman has become a hot commodity in the feature film market. He delivered a stand-out performance in Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces for Universal. Bateman then co-starred with Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper and Jennifer Garner in Peter Berg's action-drama The Kingdom. He recently wrapped a supporting role in This Side of the Truth, opposite Ricky Gervais.

Bateman has just sealed a one-year, first-look producing and directing deal with FOX television with his production company F+A Productions.

In 2007, Bateman also starred in the Fox/Mandate Pictures family fantasy and comedy film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium for director Zach Helm, who scripted Stranger than Fiction. He also received acclaim for his supporting role in the Academy Award® nominated independent smash Juno, directed by Jason Reitman.

Bateman recently wrapped filming on the crime drama State of Play, based on the popular BBC mini-series, with Rachel McAdams, Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Robin Wright Penn and Helen Mirren for director Kevin Macdonald, slated for release next year.

Bateman is also producing and starring in a film for Universal that is based on his own original idea, with Joe Carnahan is writing and directing. Called The Remarkable Fellows, the film is an action comedy about two elite "revenge specialists" who are hired by the most powerful and wealthy people all over the world to exact revenge on those who have wronged them. The film will begin production this summer.

Bateman had a supporting role in The Break-Up. Prior to that, Bateman portrayed a loose-lipped sports commentator in 20th Century Fox's comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. Bateman also co-starred in the Warner Bros. film Starsky & Hutch opposite Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. In 2002, Bateman starred with Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate and Selma Blair in the romantic comedy The Sweetest Thing. He garnered many favorable reviews for his comedic timing in the role of Roger.

As for Bateman's television credits, after impressing network executives with his portrayal of the charming, yet scheming Derek Taylor in Silver Spoons, they created a spin-off It's Your Move, based on the popularity of Bateman. He then starred with Valerie Harper in "Valerie/Valerie's Family/The Hogan Family" comedy series from 1986-1991. His other television credits include the telefilm, "Can You Feel Me Dancing," which he co-starred in with his sister Justine, as well as "Simon," "Chicago Sons," "George and Leo," "Love Stinks," and "Some of My Best Friends."

In 1987, Bateman made his feature film debut in Teen Wolf Too, produced by his father, Kent Bateman. He also starred in the 2001 independent feature Sol Goode with Balthazar Getty and Jamie Kennedy.

Bateman currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Amanda Anka, and their daughter, Francesca.

British born EDDIE MARSAN (Red) is a chameleon on screen. A versatile character actor, he first came to the attention of audiences around the world as Killoran in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York and as Reverend John in the critically lauded 21 Grams, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Marsan went on to co-star in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake, for which he won the British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the London Critics Circle Film Award, and Adrian Shergold's Pierrepoint, The Last Hangman, for which he was also nominated for a London Critics Circle Film Award. Among his other notable film appearances are Isabel Coixet's award-winning The Secret Life of Words, the Wachowski-penned thriller V for Vendetta and Terrence Malick's New World. His latest films include The Illusionist, Miami Vice and Mission: Impossible III as well as the British comedies Grow Your Own, I Want Candy and Sixty Six.

Marsan will next appear in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky with Sally Hawkins which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and will open around the world in spring 2008. He has just completed production on the dark comedy The Restraint of Beasts opposite Rhys Ifans, and on Faintheart costarring Ewen Bremner which is set to premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Marsan began his career in episodic television in the UK doing guest spots on such popular shows as Casualty, Game On, The Bill, Kavanagh QC, and as a series regular on the comedy Get Well Soon. By the late 90s his work expanded to include made-for-television movies including Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment for NBC, You are Here and Plastic Man in the UK, as well as independent films B. Monkey and This Year's Love. In recent years Marsan guest starred on such British series Friends and Crocodiles, Coming Up, Silent Witness, Grass and Judge John Deed.

Born and raised in Bethnal Green, London, Marsan served an apprenticeship as a printer prior to graduating from the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and becoming an actor. He currently makes his home in England.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

PETER BERG (Director) is a prolific talent with a taste for challenging, compelling material, whether as a writer, director, producer or actor. He made his feature directorial debut with the cult favorite Very Bad Things, starring Cameron Diaz, Jon Favreau and Christian Slater. Berg went on to direct the action hit The Rundown, starring The Rock, Seann William Scott, Rosario Dawson and Christopher Walken, and the critically acclaimed Friday Night Lights, based on the bestselling novel about Texas football by H.G. Bissinger, starring Billy Bob Thornton. The latter film was selected by the American Film Institute as one of the top 10 films of the year and was named one of the top ten films of 2004 by David Ansen of Newsweek.

Berg's most recent feature is The Kingdom, a Michael Mann-produced political thriller set in Saudi Arabia starring Academy Award® winners Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper with Jennifer Garner. The film was released in September 2007.

Film 44, Berg's and producing partner Sarah Aubrey's Universal-based development/production company, developed and produced The Kingdom, and is developing several additional features for Universal and other studios. Film 44 is also actively producing for television. Its first project is the critically hailed NBC-TV hour-long drama "Friday Night Lights," based on the film and book. Last year, Berg was nominated for an Emmy award for his outstanding directing of the pilot of this show. Film 44 is also developing for NBC "Deadline," a one-hour dramatic thriller told in reverse time. The Company has several additional titles in active development.

For television, Berg previously created, wrote, produced, and directed the ABC drama series "Wonderland." Berg also wrote and directed episodes of David Kelley's critically acclaimed series, "Chicago Hope," in which he also starred for three seasons. He made an indelible impression as the cocky, hockey-playing surgeon Dr. Billy Kronk on the medical drama. Most recently, he was seen in a recurring role on the ABC action series, "Alias."

As an actor, Berg gained considerable notice for his starring role opposite Linda Fiorentino in John Dahl's neo-noir The Last Seduction. He won critical acclaim for his portrayal of a naive local who falls for the dubious charms of Fiorentino's femme fatale. He was also seen in Michael Mann's Collateral with Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. He was most recently seen in Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces, a Universal release. Other notable acting film credits include James Mangold's independent drama, Cop Land with Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel; The Great White Hype opposite Samuel L. Jackson; Spike Lee's Girl 6; Wes Craven's Shocker; Late For Dinner with Marcia Gay Harden; Keith Gordon's A Midnight Clear; and Fire in the Sky.

Berg's interest in performing was inspired as a child attending Broadway plays twice a month with his parents. He studied theater at Macalester College in Minneapolis, where he appeared in several theatrical productions, including "Flibberty Gibbet" and "Tartuffe."

VY VINCENT NGO (Screenwriter) was born in Vietnam and moved to the U.S. when he was seven years old. He graduated from UCI with a Bachelor's degree in philosophy and received his Master of Fine Arts degree in screenwriting at UCLA.

VINCE GILLIGAN (Screenwriter) grew up in Virginia, born in Richmond and raised in the little town of Farmville. He attended NYU, graduating with a degree in film production. In 1989 at the fledgling Virginia Film Festival, he won a screenwriting award which garnered him the attention of producer Mark Johnson (Rain Man, The Chronicles of Narnia). For Johnson, Gilligan wrote Wilder Napalm, starring Debra Winger and Dennis Quaid; and Home Fries, starring Drew Barrymore and Luke Wilson. Both are available in finer bargain bins everywhere.

In 1995, Gilligan switched over to television as a staff writer for the hit series "The X-Files." He stayed with the show for seven years, ultimately becoming one of its executive producers and winning two Golden Globes®. He also helped create a spin-off, "The Lone Gunmen." For his fellow "X-Files" producer Frank Spotnitz, he wrote an episode of the short-lived CBS series "Robbery Homicide Division." This brought him to the attention of Hancock producer Michael Mann.

Splitting his writing between the big and small screens, Gilligan's current project is the Sony/AMC television series "Breaking Bad." The critically acclaimed series stars Bryan Cranston ("Malcolm in the Middle") as a straight-arrow chemist who, upon being diagnosed with terminal cancer, chooses to cook crystal meth in order to support his family.

For Sony Pictures and producer Mark Johnson, Gilligan is also working on 2FACE, a comedy about racism.

AKIVA GOLDSMAN (Producer) received the 2001 Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, and Writers Guild Award for his screenplay A Beautiful Mind. Focusing on the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, the film was directed by Ron Howard, produced by Brian Grazer, starred Russell Crowe, and won four Oscars®, including Best Picture.

Goldsman also earned BAFTA and WGA nominations for his screenplay Cinderella Man, which re-teamed him with Howard, Grazer, and Crowe.

Goldsman most recently wrote and produced the megahit I Am Legend, which starred Will Smith and took in more than $250,000,000 domestically and more than $580,000,000 worldwide.

In 2006, his adaptation of Dan Brown's bestseller The Da Vinci Code, directed by Howard, produced by Grazer, and starring Tom Hanks, became an international phenomenon, taking in more than $750,000,000 worldwide. Goldsman is also credited with the adaptation of Brown's novel Angels & Demons, which Howard, Grazer, and Hanks are now filming for release on May 15, 2009.

In addition to Hancock and I Am Legend, Goldsman also teamed with Will Smith as the screenwriter of I, Robot, suggested by the book by Isaac Asimov. The film was directed by Alex Proyas.

Goldsman's many other writing credits include The Client, starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones, Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer, Jim Carrey, and Tommy Lee Jones, A Time to Kill, starring Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock, Lost in Space, starring William Hurt and Mimi Rogers, and Practical Magic, starring Sandra Bullock.

As a producer, Goldsman founded Weed Road Pictures. Prior to Hancock and I Am Legend, Goldsman produced the smash hit action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and directed by Doug Liman. One of the top hits of summer 2005, the film took in more than $450 million worldwide. Through Weed Road Pictures, Goldsman also produced the hit films Deep Blue Sea, Starsky & Hutch, and Constantine.

Goldsman grew up in Brooklyn Heights, the son of two psychotherapists, who ran a group home for emotionally disturbed children. His experiences there inspired him to become a writer, and, ultimately, informed his adaptation of A Beautiful Mind, due to his deep connection to the material.

Goldsman graduated from Wesleyan University and attended the graduate program in creative writing at New York University. He splits his time between Los Angeles and New York with his wife, Rebecca, and their dogs, Fizz, Mouse and Echo.

MICHAEL MANN (Producer) has earned numerous honors for his work as a director, writer and producer, including four Academy Award® nominations for The Insider and for producing The Aviator. A Chicago native, Mann is recognized for his groundbreaking and cinematically captivating dramas, including Thief, Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Ali and Collateral.

In the mid-1970s, Mann began a career as a television writer, working on Police Story, the first episodes of Starsky & Hutch and the series Vega$, which he created. In 1979, he directed and co-wrote his first dramatic movie-of-the-week, The Jericho Mile, starring Peter Strauss. It garnered four Emmys and a Directors Guild Award for Best Director.

In 1981, Mann made his theatrical film debut with Thief, a crime story starring James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson and Jim Belushi that was nominated for the Palme d'Or Award at Cannes. He followed this in 1983 with The Keep, starring Gabriel Byrne, Scott Glenn and Ian McKellen. In 1986, he directed Manhunter, from the first of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter books, Red Dragon, featuring William Petersen, Joan Allen, and Brian Cox as Lecter.

Throughout the 1980s, Mann continued to work in television with the revolutionary series Miami Vice and the acclaimed Chicago and Las Vegas drama Crime Story, starring Dennis Farina. In addition, he produced the 1990 Emmy-winning miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story and the 1992 Emmy-nominated sequel, Drug Wars: The Cocaine Cartel.

In 1992, Mann directed, co-wrote and produced The Last of the Mohicans, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. He next directed the 1995 film Heat, from his original screenplay. The film depicted the taut relationship between an obsessive detective (Al Pacino) and a professional thief (Robert DeNiro) and also starred Jon Voight, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd and Amy Brenneman, the latter two having their first major roles in the film.

In 1999, Mann earned Oscar® nominations for co-writing, directing and producing The Insider, starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino. Based upon Marie Brenner's "Vanity Fair" article, the film tells the true story of Jeffrey Wigand, a tobacco-industry executive who blew the whistle on the tobacco industry and 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman's conflict with CBS.

In 2001, Mann took audiences into the heart and struggles of Muhammad Ali in Ali, starring Will Smith and Jon Voight, both of whom received Oscar® nominations for their performances. Additionally, in 2002, Mann produced Robbery Homicide Division for CBS, which starred Tom Sizemore.

In 2004, Mann directed Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Academy Award® winner Jamie Foxx. Mann earned numerous awards and nominations for this film, including the David Lean Award for directing at the 2004 BAFTAs.

Also in 2004, Mann produced the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett. This film led the 2004 Academy Awards® contenders with 11 Oscar® nominations, including Best Picture. Blanchett won a Supporting Actress Oscar® for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn.

More recently, Mann wrote, produced and directed the big-screen version of Miami Vice, starring Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Chinese actress Gong Li and Naomie Harris.

He is currently in production directing, producing, and co-writing Universal Pictures' Public Enemies, about the Depression Era's gangsters and the formation of the FBI, starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Channing Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi, and Stephen Graham.

JAMES LASSITER (Producer) joined forces with entertainment powerhouse Will Smith to create Overbrook Entertainment, a production and management company started in 1998. Lassiter is no stranger to producing hit films, including his most recent success as producer of the 2007 box-office smash I Am Legend, which took in over $580 million worldwide, and the 2006 hit The Pursuit of Happyness, which resonated with audiences around the world, earning Smith an Oscar® nomination for his performance and grossing over $300 million at the box office. In 2005, Lassiter produced the romantic comedy Hitch, also a global hit, earning over $360 million, as well as the award winning film Saving Face, starring Joan Chen. In addition, he was an executive producer on the sci-fi thriller I, Robot, and also served as a producer on the critically acclaimed Ali, for which Smith earned his first Academy Award® nomination, and ATL, starring platinum recording artist T.I.

In television, Lassiter most recently served as executive producer on the CW network's "All of Us."

Other notable achievements include his work as executive producer on the soundtracks for Wild, Wild West and Men in Black, both of which won the American Music Award for favorite soundtracks, as well as the 2001 Outer Critic's Circle Award for "Jitney," an off-Broadway play written by August Wilson. Lassiter recently graced the cover of Black Enterprise Magazine's Top 50 Hollywood Power Brokers edition alongside business partner, Will Smith.

In addition to Hancock, Lassiter's current projects include Screen Gems' Lakeview Terrace, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington. Upcoming films include Sony's Seven Pounds, which reunites Smith with director Gabriele Muccino, the director of The Pursuit of Happyness, and the entire producing team of that film; Fox Searchlight's The Secret Life of Bees, starring Dakota Fanning and Jennifer Hudson; and The Human Contract, a character-driven drama written and directed by Jada Pinkett Smith.

IAN BRYCE (Executive Producer) recently produced DreamWorks' blockbuster hit, Transformers, for director Michael Bay. The film, which starred Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox and highlighted the newest in computer-generated imagery from ILM, grossed more than $634 million worldwide. He is currently at work on the next installment of the series, set to go before cameras this summer.

Bryce previously worked with Bay on The Island, starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, which earned box office receipts over $160 million. Prior to that, he produced Antoine Fuqua's drama Tears of the Sun, starring Bruce Willis as well as Sam Raimi's mega-blockbuster action adventure Spider-Man, starring Tobey Maguire, which was the top-grossing film in the U.S. in 2002.

As a producer on Steven Spielberg's widely acclaimed World War II drama Saving Private Ryan, Bryce won a Golden Globe Award and earned an Academy Award® nomination for his work. The movie won Best Picture honors from numerous critics' organizations, including the New York, Los Angeles, and Broadcast Film Critics associations. He also shared a Producers Guild of America Award for the film. Bryce went on to produce Cameron Crowe's nostalgic comedy-drama Almost Famous, which won a Golden Globe® for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy, and garnered a BAFTA nomination for Best Picture.

Other producing credits include Forces of Nature starring Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock; the action thriller Hard Rain with Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater; Penelope Spheeris' big-screen version of the classic television series The Beverly Hillbillies; and Jan de Bont's blockbusters Twister as well as his directorial debut film, Speed.

Born in England, Bryce started his career as a production assistant on the third installment of the first Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi. He moved up to second assistant director on Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and later served as a production manager on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In addition, Bryce served as the line producer/production manager on Philip Kaufman's Rising Sun.

He was also an associate producer/production manager on Tim Burton's smash hit Batman Returns, and worked as a production manager on such films as Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Ron Howard's Willow and Joe Johnston's The Rocketeer.

JONATHAN MOSTOW (Executive Producer) is currently directing the sci-fi thriller Surrogates starring Bruce Willis for Disney. The movie derived from the popular graphic novel is scheduled for a Thanksgiving 2009 release.

Mostow directed Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines which grossed over $450 million worldwide. He previously directed and wrote the action thriller U-571, starring Matthew McConaughey. The WWII submarine drama opened #1 and garnered two Academy Award® nominations and an Oscar® for Best Sound Editing. He is currently developing a feature film adaptation of his sci-fi comic book, "The Megas" (co-written by John Harrison) published by Virgin Comics.

Mostow's theatrical film debut was as writer/director of the critically acclaimed 1997 thriller Breakdown, starring Kurt Russell. The same year, he executive produced The Game, starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn. Both films opened #1 in North America.

In 1998, Mostow directed Tom Hanks in "La Voyage Dans La Lune," the finale episode of the Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon."

Mostow began his filmmaking career as a student at Harvard University, where he directed numerous award-winning shorts and documentaries. His 1991 feature-length directorial debut, the Showtime television thriller "Flight of the Black Angel," earned him a CableACE nomination for Best International Movie or Special.

RICHARD SAPERSTEIN (Executive Producer) has run or co-run the production activities for three of the most successful independent film companies of the last 15 years. Most recently, he served as president of production of The Weinstein Company's Dimension Films, turning out the hit movies 1408, starring John Cusack, and Rob Zombie's Halloween, starring Malcolm McDowell and Brad Dourif. Upcoming Dimension films which Saperstein acquired and packaged include Youth in Revolt, starring Michael Cera, the remake of Scanners, as well as the three-D remake of Piranha.

Prior to Dimension, Saperstein served as president of production for independent studio Artisan Pictures. Previously, he was senior executive vice president of worldwide production at New Line Cinema, which he was instrumental in building into a mini-major studio. In addition to his managerial responsibilities within the production division, Saperstein served as executive producer on numerous New Line films including Seven, John Q and Frequency.

Saperstein began his career as a motion picture literary agent at ICM. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1985.

TOBIAS SCHLIESSLER (Director of Photography) previously collaborated with director Peter Berg on the high school football drama Friday Night Lights and the action/drama The Rundown .

Schliessler's motion picture credits also include Dreamgirls, directed by Bill Condon and Bait, directed by Antoine Fuqua.

He also served as the cinematographer on numerous telefilms, including "The Long Way Home," "Outrage," "The Escape," "The Limbic Region," and "Mandela and de Klerk."

A native of Germany, Schliessler studied cinematography at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. He began his career shooting documentaries, and then segued into independent features, television movies, music videos and commercials. Schliessler was honored in consecutive years by the Association of independent Commercial Producers(AICP) for his cinematography on two celebrated television spots, in 2000 for Audi's "Wake up" commercial, and the following year for the Lincoln Financial spot "Doctor" Both are now part of the permanent archives of The Museum of Modern Art's Department of Film and Video in New York City. His commercial work also includes ads for such products as Lexus,Ford,AOL, and AT&T.

Schliessler is currently in production on The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, directed by Tony Scott.

NEIL SPISAK (Production Designer) designed the blockbuster adventures Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3, which have grossed $2.5 billion worldwide to date. He also designed director Sam Raimi's The Gift starring Cate Blanchett, Hilary Swank, Keanu Reeves, Greg Kinnear and Giovanni Ribisi and For Love of the Game starring Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston. Spisak also served as production designer for Nora Ephron's Bewitched starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell.

Spisak also designed John Woo's Face/Off starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta as well as Heat, directed by Michael Mann and starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer. His other film credits include Disclosure, My Life, Benny & Joon, Pacific Heights and The Trip to Bountiful.

A graduate of the prestigious Carnegie-Mellon University, Spisak began his career in the wardrobe department. He was the costume designer on director Sidney Lumet's crime drama Q & A starring Nick Nolte as well as on writer John Patrick Shanley's thriller January Man starring Kevin Kline and Susan Sarandon. Spisak was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work as a costume designer on the American Playhouse drama Roanoak.

PAUL RUBELL, A.C.E. (Editor) last worked for director Michael Bay and producer Steven Spielberg on the science-fiction action-adventures Transformers and The Island.

He earned Academy Award® nominations for his work on Michael Mann's dramatic thriller Collateral, as well as for Mann's true-life drama The Insider. He also received Eddie nominations from his peers at the American Cinema Editors Guild for his work on both films, along with a BAFTA nomination for Collateral. Most recently, he was the editor on Mann's big-screen version of Miami Vice.

Among his other film credits are the live-action 2003 version of Peter Pan, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, S1m0ne, XXX, The Cell, Blade, The Stone Boy and The Island of Dr. Moreau.

For television, Rubell has edited a number of acclaimed long-form projects. He was nominated for an Emmy Award and received an Eddie Award for his work on the miniseries "Andersonville"; earned both Emmy and Eddie Award nominations for the ABC telefilm "My Name is Bill W," and gained an additional Eddie nomination for HBO's "The Burning Season." His other made-for-television movie editing includes "David," "The Jacksons: An American Dream," "Stay the Night," "Finding the Way Home," "Challenger," "Home Fires Burning," "Echoes in the Darkness," and "Dress Gray."

He is currently at work on Michael Mann's crime drama, Public Enemies.

COLBY PARKER, JR. (Editor) has been a longtime collaborator with filmmaker Peter Berg, with Hancock representing their sixth project together. After working with Berg on his original ABC television series, "Wonderland," he served as an additional editor on the action hit The Rundown, and co-edited both Friday Night Lights and The Kingdom. The pair first worked together on a music video produced in conjunction with Berg's big screen directorial debut, the black comedy Very Bad Things.

Parker grew up in Brooklyn and studied film at SUNY at New Paltz. He began his professional career editing sports segments for WPIX-TV in New York before branching out on his own. He opened his own music video and commercial editing facility, where he cut over 100 videos for such musical artists as Missy Elliot, Green Day, P. Diddy and Alien Ant Farm.

In addition to his feature film work, Parker is also a resident editor at Whitehouse Editorial, one of the industry's top commercial editing houses.

Two-time Academy Award® winner JOHN DYKSTRA (Visual Effects Designed by) came to the entertainment industry from a background in industrial design and still photography. At age 22, he worked as part of a team headed by Doug Trumbull on such films as The Andromeda Strain and Silent Running, designing and building models and doing effects photography.

Dykstra also helped design, build and operate a computer-controlled camera system for the National Science Foundation at UC Berkeley. Equipped with what would later be acknowledged as the foundation of motion control technology, he went back to work for Doug Trumbull in the development phases of amusement park simulator rides and other advanced image-based entertainment schemes.

Dykstra next teamed with Gary Kurtz and George Lucas, with whom he created Industrial Light and Magic, assembling the creative group that would design and build the miniatures and camera systems used to create the Academy Award®-winning visual effects for Star Wars. Dykstra was also presented with the Academy's Technical Achievement Award for the Industrial Light and Magic facility itself.

Following the ground-breaking Star Wars venture, Glen Larson hired Dykstra as a producer and visual effects supervisor on the popular television program, "Battlestar Galactica." Gathering his key players, he founded special effects company Apogee. Using Apple's first personal computers as the basis for its motion imaging systems, the team garnered an Emmy for the series.

Dykstra, Trumbull and the rest of the effects team went on to earn an Academy Award® nomination for their work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Through Apogee, Dykstra contributed visual effects to many feature films and directed commercials, theme park entertainments and video games. Under his guidance, Apogee developed benchmark motion control and blue screen technologies.

Dykstra went on to supervise the visual effects for the Batman series of films including Batman, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, and was the visual effects supervisor and second unit director on Stuart Little, subsequently nominated for an Oscar® for its visual effects. In 2000, Dykstra joined director Sam Raimi to design the visual effects for Spider-Man, garnering him another Academy Award® nomination for Best Visual Effects, an award he won four years later for his work on the sequel, Spider-Man 2.

Walden Media has signed Dykstra to direct a feature film, based on a true story, about a male tortoise who becomes a reluctant mother to a baby hippopotamus orphaned during a tsunami.

LOUISE MINGENBACH's (Costume Designer) eclectic motion picture and television credits include The Heartbreak Kid, School for Scoundrels, Superman Returns, Spanglish, and Starsky & Hutch. She has also collaborated with Superman Returns director Bryan Singer on X-Men, X-Men 2, Apt Pupil, and The Usual Suspects.

Other film credits include K-PAX, The Rundown, Gossip, Permanent Midnight, Nightwatch, and The Spitfire Grill.

Mingenbach's television credits include the series "The Naked Truth" and several movies of the week.

British-born composer JOHN POWELL's (Composer) list of film credits exemplifies his ability to transcend genre. Since moving to the United States less than ten years ago, he has demonstrated his unique talent by scoring over 38 feature films. His versatile talent can be heard in animated films, comedies, action films and drama.

Powell's ability to compose in a variety of genres stems from the wide array of styles present in his early musical studies. By the time he reached his late-teens, he had already been exposed to soul, jazz, rock and world music, as well as having a deep classical music background from the age of seven courtesy of his father, a musician in Sir Thomas Beecham's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. In 1986, he began studies in composition at London's Trinity College of Music. During his time there, his skill was recognized with both the John Halford and the Boosey and Hawkes Bursary Music College Prizes.

While at Trinity, Powell studied composition, percussion and electronic music, and experimented within the new medium of performance art. He joined the group Media Arts and, with longtime collaborator Gavin Greenaway, composed music and sound for the group's performances. Although the group disbanded, Powell and Greenway continued to create many mixed-media installation pieces with artist Michael Petry in the following years.

Powell's first foray into professional composing came soon thereafter, when he landed a job writing music for commercials and television at London's Air-Edel Music. There, he met other composers including other Air-Edel alumni, Hans Zimmer and Patrick Doyle.

Later, with Greenaway, the two co-founded London-based commercial music house Independently Thinking Music (ITM), where they collaborated on more than 100 scores for commercials and independent films.

Powell shifted his focus away from commercials to longer form composition with the opera "An Englishman, Irishman and Frenchman," also co-created with Greenaway and Petry. After a series of successful performances at the Germany state-funded art gallery, Powell moved to Los Angeles to take on more film projects.

Arriving in the States in 1997, he immediately scored two DreamWorks TV projects: the second season of Steven Spielberg's "High Incident" and the pilot "For the People." He also arranged songs composed by Stephen Schwartz for DreamWorks' animated feature The Prince of Egypt (1998).

It was Powell's hair-raising score for John Woo's Nicolas Cage/John Travolta blockbuster Face/Off that garnered critical acclaim. He composed one hour and forty-five minutes of riveting music, which utilized unresolved harmonies, tragic melodies and thundering percussion to build a heightened state of tension.

He has since scored a wide variety of films in different genres, including animated hits Antz, Chicken Run, Robots, Shrek, Ice Age: The Meltdown and Happy Feet, in addition to the actioners Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Italian Job, The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy. His interest in musical diversity continued in the creation of scores for Drumline, I am Sam and Alfie (with Dave Stewart and Mick Jagger). He also scored the superhero blockbuster X-Men: The Last Stand and United 93.

Last year he completed the final segment in the Bourne trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum. He also scored Stop Loss, P.S. I Love You and Jumper, directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity). This year he scored the animated Horton Hears a Who!, starring the voices of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell and, most recently, Kung Fu Panda.

Powell is the recipient of two Ivor Novello Awards for Best Original Film Score from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters for Shrek in 2001 and Ice Age: The Meltdown in 2006. He was nominated for a Grammy in 2008 for his work on Happy Feet.

John Powell lives with his wife Melinda and son in Los Angeles, CA.

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