IGN is reporting they've confirmed that the superhero drama Tonight, He Comes, scheduled for released in July 2008, has been retitled John Hancock. The film, which is being directed by Peter Berg, will revolve around what IMDb refers to as a "questionable" relationship between Will Smith and Charlize Theron. Smith plays a down-on-his-luck superhero who hires a PR man to repair his image and then he starts putting the moves on the PR man's wife. The cuckold will be played by Jason Bateman, who is now becoming something of a Peter Berg regular, also appearing in this year's The Kingdom, opposite Jennifer Garner and Jamie Foxx. Scripting duties for John Hancock have been handled by Oscar-bait hack Akiva Goldsman, Vince Gilligan and Vincent Ngo, and Michael Mann is on board as a producer.

Smith will next be seen in I am Legend, the adaptation of the Richard Matheson novella about a man who must defend himself against the rest of the world's inhabitants, who have turned into vampires, and he's got a comedy in the works as well, opposite Nic Cage. As for Theron, she's becoming one of those actresses whose upcoming projects are hard to determine because she has so many in the air. Her IMDb page lists seven upcoming films, including some that will be released soon like Paul Haggis's In the Valley of Elah and Battle in Seattle, and others that I wouldn't count on, like Jinx (the Halle Berry movie?) and The Braziian Job.

It's supposedly known as one of the best unproduced scripts floating around Hollywood, yet the thing has gone through three directors (Michael Mann, Jonathan Mostow, Gabriele Muccino) and it's taking a heck of a long time to get this puppy up on the big screen. According to Production Weekly, Jason Bateman (who's got a great little role in Smokin' Aces -- trust me on this one, he steals the show) is close to starring alongside Will Smith and Charlize Theron (I'm sorry, but were we aware that she signed on to this film? If so, no one told IMDB) in Tonight, He Comes.

While we've known for awhile that Smith will be playing some sort of slacker superhero, PW provides a bit more of a plot description, one that sounds decent enough for a big summer film -- it's currently eying a July 2, 2008 release date. Basically, Smith is a superhero with a drinking problem who causes lots of "collateral damage" while solving crimes. Thus, he has a bad image with the public. That is, until a public relations consultant (Bateman) swoops down to save the day as payment for Smith rescuing him from (insert problematic situation here). Yet, as our friendly PR dude works to save the superhero's image, his newest client is off romancing Bateman's beautiful wife (Theron).

Peter Berg is now (hopefully) attached as director, and he's working off a script penned by Vincent Ngo (which was rewritten by Vince Gilligan). Shooting is set to begin this May in Los Angeles ... though I thought the film was supposed to be set in Brooklyn, so I imagine they'll be making their way to New York soon enough.