As with any Will Smith movie, there has been talk of a Hancock sequel ever since the superhero action/comedy grossed over $600 million worldwide, making it the fourth biggest movie of 2008. Moviegoers may have been divided over the twist in the middle of the movie and critics may have been harsh on it, but that hardly seems to matter at this point. Columbia is now finally getting serious about Hancock 2, having just hired a pair of screenwriters to generate a script.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara have been hired to flesh out a story that will “build on the world hinted at in the first movie”. Fierro and Mazzara both have a background mainly in television, having written and produced numerous episodes of The Shield. In addition, Fierro has worked as a producer on Dexter and 24, while Mazzara has written for the Crash TV series on Starz, and he did the script for Juan Antonio Bayona’s upcoming adaptation of David Moody’s Hater.

It sounds to me like the Hancock sequel will be a bit more serious than the original, delving into the back story of his powers rather than focusing on Will Smith’s alcoholic ways. I’m certainly less interested in that, although as long as Peter Berg is returning to direct (and it looks like he is), I’ll be curious to see what he comes up with. It’s interesting to note that Vincent Ngo’s original script for Hancock (originally titled Tonight, He Comes) was quite different than what ended up on the big screen. I wonder how he feels about all this?