Will Smith and Steven Spielberg were on a similar wavelength in the 2000s. After he finished licking his wounds from 1999's "Wild Wild West," Big Willie was hungry to prove his mettle as a dramatic actor. Adapting a bit of a one-for-them-one-for-me mentality, Smith earned his first two acting Oscar nods for "Ali" and "The Pursuit of Happyness" in-between nodding his head as Agent J and tearing up the streets of Miami again as Mike Lowrey. Even his tentpoles started to get a little darker and heavier along the way, with the actor anchoring a big screen rendition of Richard Matheson's end-times sci-fi horror tale "I Am Legend" and playing a hard-edged, heavy-drinking superhero in "Hancock."

Spielberg, meanwhile, spent the first decade of the 21st century redefining his work. Really, there was very little he didn't try his hand at during this period, from crafting disquieting, noirish visions of...