Will Smith gets romantic!

Will Smith has been through a lot: from defeating aliens intent on desecrating American skylines to defeating Snoop Dogg by selling more rap records with his unique 'verse-without-a-curse' style. The man has, as he claimed, gotten jiggy with pretty much everything.

As an actor, Will grabbed the spotlight early with his hit television show, The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, and got critical raves for his powerful performance in Six Degrees Of Separation. For 2001's Ali, the actor even picked up a well deserved Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Last year, his I, Robot and Shark Tale broke through cash registers globally.

So just what is it that Will Smith hasn't yet done?

A traditional, big-screen romantic comedy!

Now, all that is set to change with the upcoming Hitch. In the film, Will stars as Alex 'Hitch' Higgins, a wonderfully well-paid dating consultant, who helps besotted bachelors successfully woo the women they crave.

Of course, his work requires complete confidentiality in order to maintain his lucrative livelihood. And here we have Sara Melas (Eva Mendes), a beautiful gossip columnist Hitch falls in love with. Hence his dilemma.

Will is excited: Hitch not only represents his title character's nickname, but also his overreaching goal of playing cupid to friends. Azcentral.com quotes the actor as saying: 'The idea of a date doctor is a really cool idea to me.' Smith has evidently, and believably, long served as a date doctor for friends and family.

'I am Hitch,' he laughs, 'I'm the one giving the advice and all that!'

Hitch hits US screens on February 11, and here's a picture of Will and his wife, actress Jada Pinkett-Smith (The Matrix, Collateral), at the film's New York premiere on February 3.

Photograph: Getty Images.