Hancock (film) Hancock (film) Hancock is a 2008 American superhero comedy film directed by Peter Berg and starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman. It tells the story of a vigilante superhero, John Hancock (Smith) from Los Angeles whose reckless actions routinely cost the city millions of dollars. Eventually one person he saves, Ray Embrey (Bateman), makes it his mission to change Hancock's public image for the better. The story was originally written by Vincent Ngo in 1996. It languished in "development hell" for years and had various directors attached, including Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Jonathan Mostow, and Gabriele Muccino before
John D. Hancock allegorical horror film "Wolfen" (1981), which was a box office failure but has steadily built a cult reputation over the years. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Hancock directed acclaimed episodes of NBC's "Hill Street Blues" and CBS's "The Twilight Zone" (1985 series), the latter including an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's science-fantasy story "A Saucer of Loneliness". He also directed the prison drama "Weeds" (1987), starring Nick Nolte, and the holiday family film "Prancer" (1989), about an eight-year-old girl who discovers an injured reindeer she believes belongs to Santa Claus. In 1998, Hancock opened his production company FilmAcres in LaPorte, Indiana,