A couple of weeks ago news came out, by way of Hancock director Peter Berg, that the full cast was returning for the recently announced, Hancock 2. It wasn’t official word from the studio that the cast was returning, but Berg sounded pretty sure of himself.

But wait! One of the main cast members, Arrested Development’s Jason Bateman, has put the breaks on this Hancock 2 casting news, saying that no one has contacted him about returning. When we reported the Will Smith and Charlize Theron were coming back, we did point out that the news didn’t explicitly include Bateman, but when Berg says, “everybody,” I think we can assume he meant the trio of main actors, Smith, Theron and Bateman. Here’s what Bateman told HitFix about the Hancock 2 casting:

In the summer of 2008 Will Smith showed off his ability to go days without shaving, act like a jerk and stop trains with his head by starring as the title character in the superhero movie Hancock.  The movie had a good box office run, banking over $600 million worldwide; so it’s no wonder that talks of a sequel weren’t too far behind.

While Hancock 2 has been in the pipeline for a minute, what was unconfirmed was whether director Peter Berg would be able to lure Will Smith and co-star Charlize Theron back for the sequel.  Theron had talked late last year about her interest in continuing her role as the female counterpart to Smith’s godly hero, but until now, the only confirmed facts were Berg returning as the director and the addition of Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara as the script writers.

Well, all the fog of uncertainty has been lifted Berg recently talked to MTV News and dropped the following bomb about Hancock 2:

It was only last week that we reported on director Peter Berg talking about a possible plot for Hancock 2, and yet today The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that two writers have been brought on-board to pen the script for the superhero sequel. Berg stated recently that we might not see a Hancock sequel anytime soon because he and star Will Smith are busy, but it looks like Sony isn’t wasting much time.

The two writers Sony has brought on-board for Hancock 2 are Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara, both writers of The Shield. The pair’s producing credits include other such TV work such as 24, Dexter and Nash Bridges. The plot for the film is being kept under wraps, but the two writers are going to be working with Berg and Smith to build on “the world” that was created in the first Hancock. This hints back to what Berg recently pitched as the plot for Hancock 2, and personally I think it’s the inevitable direction a follow-up film would have to go.

We first heard rumblings last year of a sequel to the Will Smith non-comic book superhero film, Hancock. At first it was just word that a sequel was in the works (presumably in the very early idea stages), with no real details on if the film’s star(s) or the director, Peter Berg, would be coming back to do another.

However, fast-forward almost a year and we have some more info from Berg himself, courtesy of SciFiWire, about a possible Hancock 2. It’s not info on him or Will Smith officially signing on for a sequel (or anything of that sort), rather what Berg has in mind in terms of a possible plot for a sequel.

[Warning: the following contains SPOILERS about the first Hancock and could be considered spoilerific with regards to the sequel].

It’s a sad Sunday for the Weekend Movie News Wrap Up, with the passing of Hollywood Legend Paul Newman. However, the beauty with Hollywood is that great films and great actors will live on forever. Newman has left a great body of work as his legacy, but lets not forget that the man also was hugely charitable,  giving millions away from the profits of his Newman’s Own brand. It’s a real shame.

In this week’s wrap up:

George Lucas finds a director to fly Red Tails; Will Smith flies again in Hancock 2; Sony buys Mark Millar’s War Heroes; Sherlock Holmes gets some love and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels sees Pink.