Hancock director Berg a superhero of sorts

In less than a year, you went from Jamie Foxx tracking down terrorists in Saudi Arabia in The Kingdom to a drunk anti-hero flying over Southern California freeways in Hancock. Some would say it's quite the transition.
After doing Kingdom and having to kick my young son out of the editing room every seven minutes, I decided I wanted to do something he could watch. So I came up with this.

Well, it's still not exactly a family film.
No, it’s an alcoholic self-destructive lunatic who flies around saving people while drunk! But what I like is that although it’s a superhero movie, at its core it’s about a man seeking redemption, a man looking to tap into a higher version of himself disguised as a superhero movie. I’m always looking for a slight gray area. I got to a certain point and didn’t want it to be what you expect from a movie like this. At the beginning, it’s funny and then it aspires to a kind of drama.

Kingdom was a bit of a Trojan Horse too - it was set in a geopolitically charged place, but when you track the storyline it's really more of a police procedural.
We’re in a very confusing war and it’s a confusing time for our country. But it’s dangerous when a movie offers a political point of view. It’s fair and reasonable to present facts. It’s another to get into a critique of a military. In Lone Survivor (another movie Berg is set to direct), the setting is Afghanistan. But I want to make a kick-butt movie in the vein of Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down.

You had a small role in a movie that was more explicitly political, Lions For Lambs.
You know, people think Lions was a political movie. It’s a mistake. I know (writer Matthew Michael) Carnahan and he’s not some great liberal. It didn’t have a liberal or conservative point of view. Its point was very simple – just think. And the fact that audiences rejected it lines-up perfectly with the message of the film.

Dune is in some ways an ideological work, at least for the people who read the novel as a metaphor for relying too much on middle eastern oil. How much do you want your version to pick up on those themes?
There is a sense in the book that the commodity is driving the train. But I don’t want to hang the story on that. I read the book and really liked it. What I never saw in Lynch’s film was a really strong adventure story. There’s a much more muscular time to be had there.

Whether it's jock culture in Texas or terrorist acts in the Middle East, your work seems to look at some difficult issues and times. But there's always some hope and some saviour underneath it all.
The truth is ugly. The housing market is collapsing. The environment is collapsing. I actually think we’re running out of oil. But I don’t think every movie has to dwell on that.

If your movies look at some bigger themes, your television work has revealed some pretty intimate details of place and character, which is rare on broadcast television. Are you surprised then, given the itchy trigger of networks executives, that Friday Night Lights is still on thei air?
We’ve always felt there was an audience that was not reflected in the Nielsen numbers. You go to Vegas, and you look at these big buildings and the fact that they exist is proof that it’s working. It’s the same with “Friday Night Lights.” (NBC programming chief) Ben (Silverman) is my buddy. But he wouldn’t keep it on the air if it wasn’t working.

Hancock joins legion of box-office superheroes
Welcome to the Summer of the Superheroes. The international appeal of Will Smith and the overseas market’s fondness for action heroes saw Hancock open to a mighty $78.6 million from 55 territories during last weekend, according to the final data issued. The Sony release became the fourth comic-book adaptation to dominate an opening overseas weekend since May when Iron Man bowed to $95.5 million from 57 markets. Since then, The Incredible Hulk bowed with $31 million from 38 markets and Wanted exploded last weekend with $32.5 million from 22. Still to come is Hellboy II: The Golden Army, starting out this weekend, and the new Batman picture The Dark Knight which is set for a wide release in mid-July. Sony executives are estimating that Hancock will reach a foreign gross in the mid-$300 million range by the time it completes its offshore run.