The back door pilot revolves around an ex cop, who after a brain injury, finds himself experiencing flashes of memories from the recently deceased. These flashes lead him to help the souls complete their unfinished business so they can then rest in peace.

The pilot was written by Sally Robinson (Iron Jawed Angels), and Emmy-winner Mikael Salomon (Band of Brothers, The Andromeda Strain) is attached to direct.

Photo: SCI FI Channel

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Unconventional superhero Hancock crash lands on DVD today with three different versions: single disc rated and unrated versions and a two-disc edition with both versions and a digital copy of the film. He’s also available on Blu-Ray. Featurettes include Superhumans:The Making of Hancock and Building a Better Hero.

Hancock played to mixed reviews from critics but because of the amazing box office draw of Will Smith, made money anyway. The same can’t be said of Eddie Murphy’s SF-ish comedy Meet Dave. Murphy stars as the miniature captain of a spaceship made to look – just like Eddie Murphy. After this and The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Murphy is perilously close to being banned from the genre. This doesn’t have much in the way of features which is just as well. It’s hard to imagine that even Murphy’s diehard fans want to torture themselves learning more about how this train wreck happened.

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But I don’t know Luke well enough to say whether he was talking out of his head or not. Maybe Marvel just kicked the idea around and took no action on it. We will likely never know. But to keep up with the auspicious schedule Marvel has announced, targeting an Avengers movie for 2011, they need to get crackin’ on a Captain America movie. He is, after all, the First Avenger.

And somebody has to be the Living Legend of World War II. Actors’ names bandied about include Matthew McConaughey, Leonardo Dicaprio and even Torchwood’s John Barrowman. This leaves us with several questions. Was Will Smith just a crazy rumor that got out of hand? How many of the Sentinel of Liberty’s nicknames can a Marvel fanboy shoehorn into a single post? And most importantly what actor has the muscle, charisma and acting chops to sling Cap’s shield in a live action film? Who would you cast, readers?

Image by PowerPee licensed under Creative Commons.

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MTV’s Splash Page 

The concept of a “Black Captain America” would surely rock the film world, but is not without a comic book precedent. In the Marvel Comics storyline Red, White and Black it was revealed that the government used a group of American-American soldiers to replicate the Super-Soldier experiment that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America. Only one man, Isaiah Bradley, would survive to go on that group’s most important mission into Nazi territory.

Bradley was later imprisoned before receiving a full pardon from President Dwight Eisenhower. In the Marvel Universe, Bradley’s history as a “Captain” is well known among African-American characters but largely unknown to White characters. When Bradley attended the wedding of Black Panther and Storm, Panther was surprised and honored to see him. Wolverine, who was around during World War II because of his slow aging, had no idea who Bradley was.

So it is conceivable that if Marvel offered Smith the role, they’re using the Isaiah Bradley origin and not the Steve Rogers origin. There’s precedent here as in the Ultimate line of books Nick Fury went from an old, grizzled White WWII vet to a guy that looked just like Samuel L. Jackson. That fanboy dream became a reality when Jackson had a post-credit cameo as Fury in Marvel’s summer blockbuster Iron Man.

Readers would you buy Hancock as Captain America? Or should he be a White character because that’s what he has been through decades of comic stories?

Image courtesy of Buzzfoto.

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Image details: 46664 Concert: In Celebration Of Nelson Mandela’s Life – Performance served by picapp.com

People in Hancock’s world may not like him, but moviegoers loved him to the tune of a $62.6 million opening weekend. That’s the fifth July 4th weekend win for Will Smith.

Hancock pulled in $30 million more than second place finisher WALL-E. Much of the talk now is about a mid-film “twist” that has left some of the movie’s viewers cold. It will be interesting to see if the buzz has a positive or negative impact on Hancock’s second week in cinemas.

Bucking for the no. 1 crown this week is Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Will Big Red mean stop for the homeless superhero? I love this time of year.

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Image details: Premiere Of Sony Pictures’ "Hancock" – Arrivals served by picapp.com

Will Smith has continued being critic proof as his latest effort Hancock pulled down nearly $7 million in limited opening July 1, according to Variety.  Yesterday it expanded from 3,680 screens to 3,965.

Critics haven’t been kind to the comedy about an alcoholic, surly superhero who tries to rehab his image. But it’s the July 4 weekend, the movie’s got Will and some slam-bang action. It will certainly open at no.1 and we’ll see how it holds off remaining summer blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Hellboy II.

In an interesting move, Sony has completely switched up the type of trailers it’s been showing. All summer they’ve focused on comedic aspects of the film like tossing a whale into the ocean, tossing smart-ass kids into the air and a lot of tossing things around in general. But most recently the commercials have talked about the dramatic parts of the movie like Hancock becoming mortal and Charlize Theron’s character knowing why. Perhaps in response to some negative fan reaction in screenings? Who knows, Hollywood can be so reactionary sometimes.

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Image details: Hancock Paris Premiere served by picapp.com

It’s a Will Smith flick opening July 2, so it probably doesn’t matter what critics say. But early reviews have not been kind to homeless superhero movie Hancock. In perhaps the worst indictment floating around so far, Variety’s Todd McCarthy invokes the name of famed Ahh-nold flop The Last Action Hero.

Hancock really toes the edge of its PG-13 rating so it sounds like you might not want to take the kiddies for this one. Let’s face it, Will Smith just needs to be Will Smith and everything on screen needs to blow up properly and this opens at no.1. You can expect that top spot to become a hot potato as we still have Hellboy II, Dark Knight and X-Files: I Want to Believe on the horizon.

My wife’s going to make me see it because she watches all Will’s movies. Especially I, Robot. Especially the scene where he’s in the shower. Excuse me, I have to go work out now. I’m feeling really insecure.

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