When Peter Berg was hired two weeks ago to direct the 2008 Columbia tent pole "Tonight, He Comes," it represented more than just the hopeful rejuvenation of a long-developing genre-blending superhero project. The assignment also symbolized an act of reconciliation between two highly successful writer-hyphenates.
Berg, the co-writer and director of "Friday Night Lights," and Akiva Goldsman, the Oscar-winning writer of "A Beautiful Mind" and one of "Tonight, He Comes' " producers, have known each other for 15 years. During that time, Goldsman helped out his buddy with uncredited production rewrites on 2003's "The Rundown," which Berg directed. Berg returned the favor by muscling an overturned ATV off of Goldsman's supine body after he picked a fight with gravity on an unforgiving hill during a trip to Mexico. (Injuries and egos were soothed with tequila back at the hotel.)
A few months ago, the two friends were working on "The Losers," a military thriller adapted from a comic book, when they got into a shouting match over how to approach the studio on casting. (Goldsman is a producer, Berg is the director.) The scene no doubt had great dialogue but, surprisingly, given the writers involved, it was short on action. The disagreement never became volatile enough for them to use their fists for anything other than holding coffee mugs.
"We absolutely went at it in a meeting," Goldsman says now, with obvious amusement. "Although it was rumored that we were going to come to blows, I don't know if you've ever met Pete Berg, but I would last about one blow." Ten minutes after the flare-up, Berg, who played a reluctant boxer in 1996's "The Great White Hype," and Goldsman were laughing it off. Berg then went off with James Vanderbilt ("Basic") to rework "The Losers" script, and the rewrite was strong enough for Warner Bros. to want to move into production. Until Goldsman lured Berg away to direct "Tonight, He Comes" instead. ("The Losers" is now looking for a new director, and Berg has moved into a producing role.)
A "reality-based superhero movie," "Tonight, He Comes" will star Will Smith as a conflicted, self-destructive superhero who finds himself embroiled in an affair with a married woman. Vincent Ngo wrote the original screenplay more than 10 years ago. Since then, the "Tonight, He Comes" screenplay has passed through the hands of directors Michael Mann, Jonathan Mostow and Gabriele Muccino, as screenwriter Vince Gilligan ("The X-Files" series) has been working on the emotional drama of the love story. "It's not your father's superhero movie," claims Goldsman, who says Berg got the coveted directing job because of the kind of "grounded action" he orchestrated in "Friday Night Lights." With "a comic purist's sensibility, it applies real human emotions to super powers." And, surely, punches will be thrown.
