Eccentric Superhero
Will Smith in a scene from Hancock.
There are heroes ... there are superheroes ... and then there's Hancock (Will Smith).
With great power comes great responsibility, everyone knows that. Everyone, that is, except Hancock.
Edgy, conflicted, sarcastic and misunderstood, Hancock’s well-intentioned heroics might get the job done and save countless lives, but they also seem to leave jaw-dropping damage in their wake.
The public has finally had enough.
As grateful as they are to have their local hero, the good citizens of Los Angeles are wondering what they ever did to deserve this guy.
Hancock isn’t the kind of man who usually cares what other people think – until the day that he saves the life of PR executive Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman).
It’s this fateful save that makes the sardonic superhero realise he may have a vulnerable side after all.
Facing this realisation will be Hancock’s greatest challenge yet – and a task that may prove impossible when Ray’s wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), insists he’s a lost cause.
Screenwriter Vincent Ngo wrote the spec script Tonight, He Comes back in 1996.
The draft, about a troubled 12-year-old and a fallen superhero, was initially picked up by director Tony Scott as a potential project, but he did nothing with it until screenwriters Vince Gilligan and John August got hold of the script.
They worked rewrites of it and Jonathan Mostow was brought in to direct.
Under Mostow’s supervision, a 10-page treatment was written and pitched to actor Will Smith. The two had worked together on the 2005 film Hitch and Mostow wanted him for the lead role.
In October 2006, Peter Berg was confirmed as the director of the superhero flick, which at that stage was still called Tonight, He Comes. Production was slated to begin in May 2007 in Los Angeles, where the story is set.
Before filming began, Tonight, He Comes was renamed John Hancock. The film title was eventually shortened to Hancock.
Hancock is rated M and is screening at Birch Carroll & Coyle.
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