Today's Screenwriting Lesson: Hancock

The script for Hancock earned its writers four million dollars. What qualities, exactly, made it worthy of such largesse? Read through the excerpt below and note the finely detailed characterizations and plot details that are the hallmark of a professional's prose, and see the finely-tuned flow of tension, conflict, and resolution that mark the money-making script.

Jason Bateman's first wife dies while giving birth. Years later, fate deals the saintly single dad another soulmate and the perfect replacement mom in Charlize Theron. But then Hancock, the Dysfunctional Superhero^TM, barges into their lives and threatens to split them apart. What's Hancock's story? Why do he and Charlize keep exchanging longing glances? Is he -- gasp! -- going to break this blissful union of two souls apart?

CHARLIZE THERON: I can't keep this a secret any longer, Hancock. You and I are the last two in a long line of superheros. We were made by the Gods in matched pairs, but for some reason if we spend any time together we'll physically weaken and eventually die. In ancient Mesopotamia we helped build the pyramids, and we nearly died. We kept Krakatoa's lava from spreading to Java, and we nearly died. We steered the comet Kahotek away from planet Earth and we nearly died. Right now we're both getting weaker. We're no longer immune to bullets or fire, and in fact even a well-placed punch could take us out. Hancock, we've been kind of friends for over three thousand years, but if we want to live another three thousand years one of us must seek his fortune elsewhere.

HANCOCK: Oh, okay.

THE END