What happened to Charlize Theron in ‘Hancock’?
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From a casual viewing of the marketing material for ‘Hancock,’ Sony’s upcoming Will Smith comic thriller, I hardly knew that Charlize Theron was even in the movie. Our crack reporter Chris Lee turned up at an early screening and offers this assessment:
‘At an early screening of ‘Hancock’ at the Grove last week, Will Smith’s performance as an alcoholic superhero with a bad attitude and a mounting public relations crisis had the packed theater alternately chuckling and wide-eyed. ‘Hancock’s’ third-billed costar, Charlize Theron, on the other hand, had everyone--high school students, foreign tourists, Sony executives--literally gasping with surprise. ‘In the film, she’s a stay-at-home mom, the skeptical wife of a PR executive with a heart of gold (the movie’s second-billed costar, Jason Bateman) who’s trying to repair super-screw-up Hancock’s negative public image one good deed at a time. For his part, Hancock repays the kindness by trying to put the moves on his publicist’s woman. I won’t spoil the surprise here, but let’s just say Valkyrie-like South African Oscar-winner Theron has a much meatier part in the film than you might otherwise be led to believe by her marginal presence in various trailers, billboards and one-sheets for ‘Hancock.’ ‘Even the little kid with a backpack who offhandedly calls Smith a ‘jackass’ in the trailer is getting more YouTube face time. While it’s certainly tricky to entice moviegoers with the promise of a big third-act plot twist--without giving too much of its pivotal ‘reveal’ away--past marketers have done much more with much less (to wit: the all-fur-coat-and-no-knickers viral marketing scheme for ‘Cloverfield’). All things considered, it’s downright mysterious that Sony would squander any opportunity to connect with ‘Hancock’s’ core constituency--young males--by leaving the blond bombshell Esquire named ‘the Sexiest Woman Alive’ on the cutting room floor.’
Chris makes some good points. So I called up Sony marketing guru Val Van Galder to find out--did the studio really blow a chance to get even more young guys in to see their film? Here’s her side of the story:
Most of the time, when you talk to studio marketers about their wildly expensive summer films, they’re under so much pressure--from insecure filmmakers, cranky production chiefs and busy-body reporters like me--that they sound like they’re about to be rushed off to a funny farm. But Van Galder had the relaxed air of someone who suspects she has a pretty big hit on her hands (despite a not especially enthusiastic review from Variety ). Van Galder doesn’t think Theron will be missed too much--until people see her in the film. As she put it: ‘I’m hoping that just having Will Smith playing a really cool superhero will be enough to get a few people in to see the picture.’
Charlize Theron photo by Miguel Villagran / Associated Press