Ale

Another Interview: http://www.joblo.com/video/joblo/player.ph...evenPoundsSmith

People can do with their money what they want. It's not our business. There is too much hate against Will Smith lately on this board, just because he hasn't released an album since 'Lost & Found'. Let's face it, Will now seems interested only in acting. Let's respect it. And let's not believe everything we read on the Internet about him, please. We don't even know if it's true or not. You can dislike Will Smith as an actor, I understand that, but if you're gonna post a lot of negative comments about him all the time, then I don't see a solid reason why those "haters" waste their time on here. Seriously. Many people still enjoy his movies and admire him, and that includes me.

VIDEO! http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6488238 (they show another clip from the movie)

Japan Premiere Pics! http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.a...mp;src=standard http://wireimage.com/SearchResults.aspx?ig...ld=C&vwmd=e

Video! http://dailymotion.alice.it/search/will%2B...1218_shortfilms

Pics:

Two more interviews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjbc8PzA5nk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mue0eEsUqpY

Great, thanks for your review viber. I'm glad you liked it, and saying that this movie is even better than 'Pursuit' makes me want to see it right now! But I won't download :lolsign: I'll wait... So, tell me, is 'Seven Pounds' your favorite Will Smith movie?

Everybody seems to love him, and his movies always do quite well at the box office, and this morning Will Smith paid a friendly visit to the folks over at “Good Morning America.” The “I Am Legend” stud looked a bit preppy as he exited ABC Studios in New York City, stopping off to sign a ton of autographs for fans, including one admirer who offered her checkbook as a signature pad. Source: http://www.celebrity-gossip.net/celebritie...america-209866/

And?

Rosario Dawson on 'The Tonight Show' with Jay Leno (and they show a new clip from the movie) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GrnWl6xmEM

Seven Pounds: Cast Interviews http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMIYyXft1U

Another video! http://www.theinsider.com/news/1443995_Sta...Pounds_Premiere

Thursday's Talk Shows Good Morning America Anthony Hamilton performs; Sandra Lee; Jennifer Aniston; Will Smith. (N) 7 a.m. KABC 76895 Late Show With David Letterman Will Smith; Of Montreal performs. (N) 11:35 p.m. KCBS 26582609

Will Smith Shares His Wife's Advice at 'Seven Pounds' Premiere Video! http://www.etonline.com/news/2008/12/68948/index.html

'TDTESS' Press Conference In Japan Pics! http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.a...mp;src=standard http://wireimage.com/ItemListings.aspx?igi=346824&nbc1=1

More pics here! http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.a...mp;src=standard http://wireimage.com/SearchResults.aspx?ig...ld=C&vwmd=e http://wireimage.com/SearchResults.aspx?ig...ld=C&vwmd=e http://wireimage.com/SearchResults.aspx?ig...ld=C&vwmd=e http://wireimage.com/SearchResults.aspx?ig...ld=C&vwmd=e

Pics! http://www.daylife.com/topic/Will_Smith/photos/all/1

I seriously doubt that.

Rosario Dawson Interview, Seven Pounds MoviesOnline sat down with Rosario Dawson to talk about her new film, “Seven Pounds,” a gripping mystery and surprising love story directed by Gabriele Muccino (“The Pursuit of Happyness”) and starring Will Smith. “Seven Pounds” is a stirring and emotionally suspenseful tale about a man with a haunting secret who sets out to redeem himself by drastically changing the lives of seven total strangers. Once his plan is set in motion, nothing can alter it. Or so he thinks. But what Ben Thomas (Smith) never expects is that he will fall in love with one of the strangers, Emily Posa (Dawson) – and that it is she who will start to change him. Once Will Smith had committed to Seven Pounds, the search was on for an actress to play Emily. It was Gabriele Muccino who suggested Rosario Dawson, who has been emerging as one of today’s most sought-after leading ladies, with roles ranging from the action of “Eagle Eye” and “Sin City” to the drama of “Shattered Glass” and “The 25th Hour.” Says Muccino: “Rosario carries a tangible vulnerability that matches with her sensuality. There’s a cleverness that comes across through her attitude – and it was that cleverness that I felt we needed in order to believe that somebody like Ben could be rescued by a woman like Emily.” Dawson fought hard for the role. “This was one of the best scripts that I’ve read, period,” she says. “As soon as I read it, I knew that this was a character that I loved, this was a journey I wanted to take. These characters just really moved me with their authenticity. Every single person was just incredibly real. So, I auditioned like crazy and dedicated myself to making sure I was a part of this.” It also helped that she had such a strong affinity for Emily. “I love that Emily is stubborn and independent. I love that she’s a survivor and she’s always found a way to take care of herself,” she says. “But now she’s feeling alone and there’s part of her that realizes she’s going to be increasingly at the mercy of others. So the challenge was to show that loneliness while also showing her curiosity, youthfulness and fierce resolve to live.” Like Smith, Dawson ultimately sees the love story of Emily and Ben as part of something larger. She sums up: “I see Seven Pounds as being about a lot of different kinds of love: the love that you hope for, the love that you have to accept, love for yourself, love for strangers and most of all, love for life itself.” Rosario Dawson is a fabulous person and we really appreciated her time. Here’s what she had to tell us: MoviesOnline: We know that Zach and Miri Make a Porno was written for you and you were all set to star in it and then this happened. How weird was it to give up a project? Rosario: Actually, it was Eagle Eye that came up. Zach and Miri hadn't set a date yet so we were going back and forth for quite a while and I signed on to Eagle Eye and then like three days later, he's like, “Well, I'm shooting in January” and I'm like “I didn't know that” so it ended up not working out. That was really unfortunate because I love him (Kevin Smith) so much. There were no other issues with Seven Pounds and, in that regard, there was nothing that I wanted to do more than I wanted to do this movie. MoviesOnline: Did you do research or meet with heart patients? Rosario: I did, yes. I met with someone who had had a heart transplant. I studied and looked at surgeries. I talked to a trauma doctor and it brought a lot of information of how many surgeries she'd probably already had at that point. She must have had four or five pacemakers put in and different types of surgeries done because you don't go to the level of being on a heart transplant waiting list without that. So even talking to him about how he felt, what the energy was when the phone rang, we really just went into the beat by beats of it all and it was really incredible learning about the fact that he can't run, learning about walking three paces and being out of breath, taking all of those details and then filtering it through Emily. Emily was not someone who these facts just created. They were part of her life but she chose to be someone so beautiful and graceful and dignified in the face of her mortality. That was something I was really moved by and one of the reasons I really wanted to play Emily; why I wanted to bring her to life because she seemed so complex. Even as tenacious and on point as she was in regard to Ben's character, so was also really alone. And, the juxtaposition of her seeming to be so on it and having her life in order and so precise and her printing press and all the little things that she had, kind of the details of her life. She was also the person calling an IRS agent at the hospital and asking for a bedtime story because she didn't have anyone else to call. That was at her really most dire when her face and her health were really starting to jump and she was really concerned about dying and that's the person she called. That made me feel so sad for her that that's all she had, but so beautiful, I thought, that she would just make that call, though. She wasn't afraid to say “Do you ever think about dying?” and meaning it when she was asking the question. I thought that heartfelt-ness about every single bit of dialogue that she had was something really remarkable and something we could all probably learn from. If we really were that real all the time, we'd save ourselves a lot of time. MoviesOnline: Can you talk about your acting process with Will? Rosario: (joking) Will's a complete jerk. He's one of those guys who is only on for his side of the camera. Once it goes on me, there's nothing. No! He was amazing. We had five weeks of rehearsal which actually did not feel like enough time when we were going into it. But, actually, it was quite a lot of time. The chemistry between these two characters was so important and we worked through the entire script from beginning to end and changed a lot of things. We'd do the scenes over and over and over again trying to find our place and pushing ourselves. Gabriele would be like “No, you're doing that thing with your eyebrow. Rosario, stop using your hands so much.” Any little trick that we were going into behavior-wise, would be stripped from us. “I don't like that. I don't know why I don't feel it. You seem like you're faking it. I don't want you to be acting, you have to be it.” And, it's hard to be it. At the end of the day you're realizing you're resisting it to some degree even as much as you are committed and you're there because you're talking about life and death. These are scary things personally. It's not like we're fighting aliens or something that is fully abstract, this is real -- having to deal with thinking about your own mortality and letting that really sink in so you can ask the question “Do you ever think about dying” and really mean it. It's like “Oh my God” so it was incredible. We really fell in love with these characters but Will, toward the end, hated Ben. I continued to fall in love with Emily, but he started getting really kind of over Ben. And, that was really interesting to work through. He was incredibly gracious and amazing though almost all of it up until that point where he was really resisting and fighting being this person. Ultimately, that was because Ben was fighting being who he was as well. That was really interesting just seeing how far we were falling into these characters and really considering how we are in the world and how sincere we are in all the things that we do. It was incredible. I was very grateful to be working with someone as committed and as great of an actor as Will is. We shot over two months. MoviesOnline: What keeps you going when you face sorrow or trauma in your own life? Rosario: The only people who make me feel that are my mom and my grandmother. I love my dad, I love my brother, all these different people in my life, but the people who literally stop my heart are my mom and my grandmother. I remember when they were all coming to visit me and I was driving. It was the first time. I don't have any kids but I can imagine what it must feel like to drive your kids in a car and suddenly be really aware of all the jerks on the road but I was like in driving school. I was checking all my mirrors. I was going super slow. My grandmother was even going “Why are you going so slow?” I suddenly just felt so concerned and so aware that I had three generations in one car and how responsible I would be for that. When I first read the script, I was with my grandmother and my mom coming back from the Hispanic Heritage Awards in D.C. and my grandmother was asleep on my mom and my mom was asleep on me and I cracked open the script and that's the place that I was in when I read the script so I think that's one of the reasons why it really impacted me. My mom is diabetic and asthmatic and so health is something that I'm always very concerned about in regard to her. I know, for her looking at the script and coming on set and seeing me sick was really hard for her to think of me in that position. We're just very emotionally connected the three of us in a very deep way. They're the people that I always need when I'm not happy or am going through anything and I can't imagine them not being there, so that's honestly the scariest thing I could possibly imagine. I remember I broke down, I was crying with my mom when I read the script and I said “I'm going to be able to audition for this and the audition is coming up and I'm so scared. This is the most important thing ever.” You always hope, as an actor that you would get this kind of script across your desk and, sometimes, I've gotten that script and been told “the offer is out to someone else.” It's really awesome to read a script that someone else is going to do, but this time I was actually going to be able to audition and I knew it was coming up and if I didn't get this part, it was because of me. There were a lot of other women vying for this role. This was really big and I needed to prepare and I needed to know that I actually could be a good enough actor to make this woman come to life because she deserved it. She had an incredible story that needed to be told, and told well. That was something that was really intense for me. MoviesOnline: What was the most difficult scene for you? Rosario: It wasn't actually the most difficult but definitely the most emotional and intense were the scenes in the hospital where I'm calling him and making the phone call. That one was really difficult because, as we were shooting it, Gabriele thought the scene was too long and we were shooting and shooting and I'm bawling and all of a sudden, he goes “Cut, cut, cut! This is too long.” And he and Will walked away and came back and said “Okay, these three pages are out” and I went “Aaaaaa, whoa, okay” and that was amazing because, as an actor, sometimes in the [process] of keeping it fresh and being emotional and all that, you still get caught in your rhythm and I had to get out of that rhythm and be fresh with it again and still be able to be connected and emotional. We went over it and went “Okay, I need that line to be here. This line is really important. This is the one that gets us over here.” We were just really structuring it and that was when I needed to be technical and I'm not Julliard-trained. I was lucky that I was talking to Tracie Thoms and she would come over and we would have meetings about the character and we worked through the entire script together and I benefited from her Julliard training. It was taking that balance of what I like to come from, which is not less prepared but it definitely comes from a more personal way of approaching it, and having that professional way of being able to go but, technically, I need to keep those tears going. I need to keep this going. I need the emotions to register and whatever I need to make that happen, I need to make clear so we can get this done because we're not going to do this tomorrow, we're doing it today. So that was something that was really, really intense and thank God for projects like Rent and other things that really helped me to be exactly where I could be capable of drawing that out of myself now. MoviesOnline: What do you hope audiences take away from this film? Rosario: I hope compassion for themselves, honestly. That's the thing I was so moved by. You can be so caught up in yourself and you can forget the people around you and the choices that you have in front of you. Sometimes it takes a stranger talking to you where you can be honest because you don't have any of the things going “Well, you think of me as your sister or your friend or your boyfriend” or whatever it is and you're not going to allow me to really say what I'm thinking and feeling without you filtering it through “Well, you never said that before.” So, that's something that I feel; just really registering being honest and truthful to yourself and being able to come from that place because we all have choices all the time. That's one of the things I'm really drawn to in projects and scripts that I read. It's one of the reasons why I loved working on 25th Hour. It wasn't really where my character was coming from but the story, as an arc, was really talking about choice and, in 25 hours, you can completely turn your life around. You could be a different person in a different place and just move on. You have that ability. Life is too short and precious to not try that and give yourself that opportunity. When people walk out of the theater, I hope they really look at each other and open the door for each other. I think we really need to have a sense of community around us that we haven't had for a really long time. MoviesOnline: Talking about random acts of kindness, have you done any that you can share or have you ever had any done to you? Rosario: Yes. I was so moved in this movie when Ben says, “Don't be weak!” to that woman who was abused. It's such a harsh and strong moment and she goes “I know” and that's so deep to me, so beautiful and I'm so grateful that Will is doing a story like this that would normally get relegated to being an independent film; that would not normally get put into a huge cineplex and pairing himself with Gabriele again. They did this in The Pursuit of Happyness, they allowed grown men and women to be crying in a theater together and still feel like they were who they were. It didn't take away from them, it just allowed them to be emotional. That's something so incredible. We need more of that. I walk around and give people flowers in the street sometimes. It's amazing to watch someone's face as you give them a flower in the street and someone down the block sees it and goes, “That looks really weird” and you look at their face again and they're like “Why didn't she give me a flower?” and kind of feel upset if I don't see them. They slow down to make sure. “Would you like a flower?” “Well, yes, that would be very nice” and the grin on their face and an innocence that comes and people just see each other. I think that's really important. Even if that homeless guy on the street asks for some change and you don't really have money, just say “I'm so sorry. I hope you have a great day.” A lot of times they just appreciate that you didn't ignore them. It means so much. MoviesOnline: Is it hard for you to watch yourself on screen? Rosario: No. Narcissistic actress right here. No. I don't see myself when I'm on screen and when I see myself, that's when I get annoyed. When I watch this movie, I see Emily and I really love Emily. If I'm really looking at myself, I'd probably go, “I would never wear that blouse.” I get miffed a little bit when I hear about actors who don't watch their own films. Then why am I supposed to pay ten bucks to watch it if you won't even watch it? I'm getting into producing now. I produced this film Descent which is very hard to watch because I'm being raped and then I'm raping someone else and that was really scary and ugly to see those types of expressions on my face, that type of pain and anger. I was able to kind of just watch Maya and see her journey and see the person that she was and just be honest with her choices. A lot of times, I'm acting completely contrary to my own instincts. He Got Game, playing a 17-year-old girl who is cheating on her boyfriend and is promiscuous and just stupid, it just made me really angry and I got then when people were watching, “I hated you in this movie but I felt you at the end.” It was like, “Well, I felt her at the end as well.” As much as I disliked her in so many regards, I also understood that she was just 17 and she was making stupid choices. They weren't my choices and they were definitely not ones I would want other people to make, but I had to play them out because they were real and they were her choices. I feel very lucky because of the way I started as an actor. I never wanted to be an actor so I was just always so curious about the entire process that I could watch myself. I think that's helpful now because I can see how I've grown and figured out things along the way. I can be very judgmental of myself. That's very much why I wanted to do this movie because I knew it would force me to be a better actor. MoviesOnline: What made you want to be an actor then? Rosario: I was doing some of my filing and according to me as a child I wrote this piece of paper and said I thought I was going to be a star. I used to argue with people about it when they'd asked me how I meant to manifest that; through dancing or singing or what and I'd be like “I'm gonna be a star! Okay. Get it!” (laughs) and then, as I was in high school I got really into biology and math so I wanted to be a marine biologist and I was studying. I took Civil Engineering at Columbia University. I was trying to figure out whether I was going to be in Engineering or Biology work. That's where I was at when I was discovered into acting and continued going to those classes. I didn't take any theater. I was just so into it. I took a summer class for theater which my grandmother forced me to do which I hated because it was around all these kids who wanted to be actors and they all had their resumes and their headshots and they were talking about their auditions and it just seemed like a world I didn't want to be a part of at all. I was so much more into Calculus. I was scared when I became an actor and I continued to do that. I thought I was dooming myself to being poor for the rest of my life and being frustrated. My mom's a singer and my dad used to act and my uncle is a comic book artists and my grandmother is a photographer and a painter and poet and they're all really incredible artists but they're all really frustrated. I didn't want to be unhappy. I was scared for so many years and cried because I thought I made the wrong decision by not going to college. MoviesOnline: How do you feel about the Oscar buzz? Rosario: The only "O' word I like to talk about is Oprah. I think it's well-deserved for so many people on this project. They were very, very committed to making this happen. This is a very precious and beautiful story that Grant wrote and we all took it very seriously that we were going to be committed to it and there were literal conversations that “if you're not helping team, you're hurting the team and if that's going to be the case, then don't be here.” We were very intense and very honest with each other about our commitment on this and it was really beautiful to see. You could see it across the board. It really does trickle down from the top and how wonderful Will is and how incredible Gabriele is. He's one of the most emotional and connected directors I've ever met and worked with. Down to the P.A.s, everyone felt how special this was and wanted to be present. Everything worked beautifully in harmony. And even though there were gray days and I'm walking around in a hospital gown blue in the face, there were smiles on everyone's faces. That was unbelievable. I've never witnessed anything like that on a set before. MoviesOnline: Can you talk about your love scenes with Will? Rosario: (laughs) Yes. It was really funny. Will is shockingly shy about intimacy with strangers I guess. I guess that's not too bad but it was really unbelievable how much he pushed our kiss scenes for weeks to the point where I started getting really nervous about my breath and it started to get down to the little details of going (she sniffs her underarms like “Do I stink?”) (laughter) Seriously? It's not that bad. We don't have to totally do tongue. We could work on this. It was such a big deal, talking about having Jada there. It was kind of getting awkward at a certain point and I'm going “I can't believe that you're shy and you're nervous.” I remember we actually go into the scene where we're kissing at the printing press and it's toward the end. It's a very emotional scene. The way we revved up into that was Will standing outside going “Yeah! We goin' to get this scene! Woooo! Yeah! I'm ready to go today!” (laughter) and I was like “You haven't done that for the past fifty-five days. Why today, babe? You're kind of freaking me out. I need a little bit of calm going into this. I need some candles and nice music and you're screaming out there like you're ready to play football or something.” It was freaking me out. But, it was so sweet. Everyone could tell that he was really, really nervous so I just was very gentle (she laughs). “Seven Pounds” opens in theaters on December 19th. http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_16089.html

Another interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlGdJeGQrGQ

Gabriele Muccino: Directing With Will Power The director on working with Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, and "Seven Pounds" Seven Pounds (Columbia) director, Gabriele Muccino speaks with a confidence one could only have when assured their work is of the highest quality. In his thick Italian accent, the Pursuit of Happyness (Columbia) sits down to talk about his latest effort, casting Rosario Dawson, and partnering with box office monster, Will Smith again. VIBE.com: Seven Pounds’ storyline isn’t an easy sell. Was there any trepidation when starting this movie? Gabriele Muccino:We were both scared to make such a difficult and brave movie. We had to stare at each other’s eyes and figure out if we were really ready to jump without a parachute. There was no safety net. There was nothing comparable to. The first third of the movie, this kind of episodic structure was pretty hard to handle, because we couldn’t give away certain information, but yet we have to hook the audience. [Will Smith’s character] Ben Thomas was walking around with a mask on his face, which didn’t allow the audience and also the people he was in touch with to understand who he really was. The script was terrifying. It was very cryptic. I didn’t understand anything up until the very last five pages. Most people that have seen the trailer have admitted finding it pretty confusing. What should the viewers know before they see the movie? We can say that this man has done something terrible. We can say that he has done something that has destroyed his life that made him become a dead man walking. But through love, he finds out that his life can start over again. This movie reminds us of what love can do. If we love ourselves, then we can give love. We tend to feel cheesy when we talk about love, but actually we shouldn’t, because love is something that if you are deprived of, we get empty and useless. So the idea that this woman [Rosario Dawson’s character] brings back love into the life of this man is enormous. It is a genius twist. It says to people who are surrendering (contemplating suicide), “Don’t surrender. Don’t give up.” There’s always a way to stand up again, even if you did something horrible. This movie has some unanticipated twists and a powerful ending. Was there ever a push from the studio to make it more of a Hollywood-like, typical ending? No. I did this movie with the same freedom and in the same spirit as Pursuit of Happyness. The movie was embraced the way it was written. Nobody believed it was going to be a easy movie. Nobody believed it was going to be a light, bright, comedy. Everybody thought this was going to be dark, it’s going to be edgy, and it’s going to be different. The only argument [with the script] was what we were going to give away and what not to give away. Will Smith said that towards the end of the shoot, he began to really hate his character. Why do you think he felt like that? He had to hate the character. Because the character is the furthest character you can find away from Will Smith. Will Smith is everything, but not Ben. Ben reacts and thinks in a way that Will wouldn’t. I forced Will to be dead inside, to be resigned. I spent five weeks of rehearsals with Will just understanding how to nail this man and how to portray this sense of blankness and pain, but not total death. Because if you are really dead, then you’re not reactive to love. [He had to play] someone who, despite his own knowledge, was reactive to love. Ben had to walk through the world with a mask on his face. Sometimes it was a smiling, gentle mask to gain the trust of the people he was willing to help. But Ben is a big fake, a big cheat. Why did you cast choose Rosario Dawson as Will’s love interest, Emily Posa? I hadn’t seen so much of her [movies] as I expected, but I wanted to give her a chance, so I asked her to come and audition. She came in and she wasn’t the only one. We had three or four incredible actresses come in a read with Will and she just had the best chemistry. That match revealed to be the best since the very first moment. I think she and Will push the movie in such a tender vibe and recall us of our experiences with love. [Look at] their eyes, the way that they caress each other, the way that they look at each other. All those elements are intangible, but they are on the screen because of their chemistry. I know we worked pretty hard to achieve the result, but there are things that no director can really pull out of actors. That’s natural talent. This is your second time working with Will. What kind of relationship have you built with him and will there be more movies with you two involved? I have a really strong connection with him. We know each other’s boundaries. We are very shorthand. I was never intimidated by working with a movie star. This allowed me to work the same way I did when I was doing Italian movies. The only thing that counts is the final result and being honest and urgent on the screen, no matter how I have to achieve that. If I have to say to an actor “This doesn’t work. You suck. Please go back to the trailer and work it out,” then you suck. That probably cemented the relationship with Will even more, because he knows when I say that it’s brilliant, it’s brilliant. And when I say it’s bad, it’s bad. He does the same with me. If he doesn’t like something, he tells me. I’ll think about what I said. And if I’m convinced of what I want to do, I don’t give a ****; I go back and say, “We’ll do it my way.” There’s a very strong trust and respect between each other, which I hardly believe is going to finish with this movie. Seven Pounds hits theaters 12/19/08. Look out for more interviews with Rosario Dawson and Will Smith later this week. http://www.vibe.com/news/online_exclusives...ith_will_power/

"Seven Pounds" a heavy movie for Will Smith By Todd Longwell LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Ten years ago, writer Grant Nieporte struck up a conversation with a stranger at his brother's 30th birthday party. About a half-hour into their talk, he realized that he was speaking to the saddest person he'd ever met. "Later, I asked my mom, 'Did he just get out of prison for killing someone?' because that was the kind of weight it seemed like he was wrestling with," Nieporte recalls. "She said, 'No, but he feels responsible in his professional life for a national tragedy and the loss of life that accompanied that.'" It turned out the man had moved to the West Coast to get away from his mysterious past. "I thought, one way to deal with it is to move away, change your life and find a new occupation," Nieporte says. "What is another way? What are the lengths that a character would go to make amends for a loss of life? How many years have to go by before you can forgive yourself, and when is it OK to live again?" Those questions eventually would become "Seven Pounds," the tale of a man despondent about a past mistake who decides to redeem himself by committing seven acts of kindness for strangers before taking his own life. (The film, whose title is derived from William Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice," opens on December 19 via Sony.) But the idea remained in the back of Nieporte's mind for the next seven years as he worked on the final two seasons of ABC's "Home Improvement" and served as a showrunner's assistant and writer on "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" and "8 Simple Rules." "I didn't know what the rest of the mystery would be or what the plan would be," Nieporte says. "It sort of germinated on and off, and I finally started writing in the spring of '05." Nieporte completed the script later that fall, and it was sent out to studios and producers the week before Christmas. The first bite came from the eventual buyer -- Escape Artists, a Sony-based independent production company. The producers met with Nieporte in January 2006 and optioned the script the following month. Their first comment: They wanted Nieporte to make it more of a love story. The writer didn't bristle at the request because he actually had excised a romantic thread to focus on the mystery surrounding why his main character, Ben Thomas, is so despondent. "I knew I had the right producers when they started saying, 'Wait. What scenes did you cut?'" Nieporte says. Once there was a solid draft, the producers approached Will Smith and his production partner, James Lassiter. The group had worked together on 2006's "The Pursuit of Happyness," which earned Smith an Oscar nomination for best actor. "Will told me, 'Look, I planned on reading two or three pages and putting this thing down, but you had me by the first page,'" Nieporte recalls. "He told me he had to know what happened to the guy. He read it straight through and called up in the morning and said, 'I've got to do this.'" Smith too had a few notes, including revising the original fantastical ending to make it more relatable. "That turned out to be a great note because it allowed me to bring the love story (involving a cardiac patient) full circle in a way that I never had in my earlier drafts," Nieporte says. With Smith on board, the producers next approached Gabriele Muccino, the Italian director of "Happyness," who led Nieporte through yet another polish that wiped away some of the narrative fat that accumulated through previous drafts. Finding financing was not a problem. "Happyness" had cost Sony a mere $55 million and grossed $300 million worldwide, so the studio was more than eager to be in business again with the world's biggest movie star and the same creative team. The "Seven Pounds" budget was similarly modest -- slightly less than $55 million. The next step was filling out the rest of the cast. The most significant component was an actress to play Smith's love interest, Emily. Rosario Dawson had heard about the part and was determined to land it. She had been in the running to play Smith's wife in "Happyness" but lost out to Thandie Newton. And after high-profile but relatively untaxing roles in such recent films as 2007's "Grindhouse" and this year's "Eagle Eye," she was ready for something she could sink her teeth into. "I've read some great scripts over the years that I haven't even had the opportunity to audition for because they were already out to someone else," Dawson says. "With this one, I was being given the opportunity, and I knew if I didn't do well on the audition it would be nobody's fault but my own." Initial signs were not encouraging. Arriving for the audition -- "One of the few times in my life that I was actually early," she says -- Dawson was greeted by other actresses waiting for their turns. Once she was in the room to read with Smith, Muccino made her repeat her scenes over and over again. "He'd say, 'Don't do that. You're furrowing your brow. Don't act like you're upset, be upset,'" Dawson recalls. "But when the casting director cried, I thought, 'OK, that's a good sign.'" It was. Dawson got the part, joining an ensemble cast that also includes Woody Harrelson, Barry Pepper, Michael Ealy, Elpidia Carrillo and Bill Smitrovich. The film marks the acting debut of Connor Cruise, the 13-year-old adopted son of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. He plays Smith's character as a young man in a key scene. Before principal photography began in February in and around Los Angeles, Muccino put the actors through five weeks of rehearsal while he honed the script without Nieporte, who couldn't participate because of the Hollywood writers strike. "I always rehearse," Muccino says. "This time, I had to push Will to a place he's never been before. This character has nothing in common with Will Smith in real life. Will is somebody who's full of life. The character is somebody who believes his life is over. Will had to go to a dark place from which he had to be saved through the journey of the movie." When cameras began rolling on the 60-day shoot, Smith -- who also served as one of the film's producers -- demonstrated a remarkable ability to dip in and out of that dark place. "He can literally come off of shooting the heaviest thing and be instant comedy, cracking jokes and entertaining, right there with it and interested in people," says Nieporte, who was on the set for the bulk of the shoot. "Then they say, 'We're ready for you, Will,' and he's right back into character." While Smith's disposition remained outwardly bright, near the end of the shoot the actor admitted to Nieporte that the weight of the character's inner turmoil was causing him real psychic pain. It was on his mind all the time, even when he was home at night with his family. "He said, 'I am just exhausted. I've got to shed this,'" Nieporte remembers. Whether the finished film would affect audiences so intensely remained to be seen. Smith told Nieporte that the true test would be if it inspired what he called "the man cry." "Will said, 'In "Pursuit of Happyness," we got the man cry,'" Nieporte says. "In this movie, I know we've got the man cry!" Reuters/Hollywood Reporter http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/id...E4BE1FV20081215

Seven Pounds: Behind The Scenes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzvXCpM51Nw

For Will Smith, 'Seven Pounds’ offers chance to shed some of his old persona The box-office champ says 'Seven Pounds’ offers him the chance to shed some of his old persona DALLAS — "Stop looking at the porn," Will Smith jokingly admonishes as he steps inside the hotel suite at the Ritz-Carlton. He takes long strides across the room. His smile is wide. His laugh is booming. He shakes my hand like he’s a corporate CEO and we’ve just closed on a million-dollar deal. He was in Dallas just two years ago, promoting his Oscar-nominated The Pursuit of Happyness, and little seems to have changed: This is a guy very conscious of his power to instantly win over whoever is in his midst. (Oh, and just for the record: I was checking my e-mail when Smith walked into the room, not trolling for porn.) Except once the laptop is tucked away and the interview begins, a different side of the actor is revealed. For the first time in recent memory, the world’s biggest movie star — a man whose least commercially successfully effort of the past six years, Bad Boys II, managed to gross $273 million worldwide — seems to be a little worried about his latest project. "It’s definitely patience-trying," Smith acknowledges of Seven Pounds, an unexpectedly somber drama that opens nationwide Friday. "This is a movie that totally banks on the fact that you trust the filmmakers. It tries my patience . . . but I would say that I was fairly certain that people will be able to get through [it]." 'Seven’ secrets Directed by Gabriele Muccino, with whom Smith also made The Pursuit of Happyness, Seven Pounds unfolds in extremely (some might argue maddeningly) elliptical fashion; it takes more than an hour before we have even the vaguest inkling of what is actually happening. Smith plays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent — or at least that’s what he appears to do for a living — who takes a special interest in the cases of a seemingly unrelated group of people, including Rosario Dawson as a woman with a deadly heart condition and Woody Harrelson as a blind telemarketer. Clearly Ben is harboring some sort of secret. Whether audiences will still be paying attention by the time the grand revelation takes place, however, remains open to debate. It’s a very strange choice for an actor who talks often about "studying patterns" and who says that he’s forever looking "for the No. 1 answer" — those rare commercial projects that bridge race, gender and nationality in their appeal. "There’s a picture in my mind of who I want to be," Smith says, "and Seven Pounds — no matter how difficult it is to sell — is in line with the aggressive left turn that I feel like I need to make artistically." A guy whose last films, Hancock and I Am Legend,had a combined worldwide gross of $1 billion feels the need to make an aggressive left turn? "I just turned 40," Smith explains. "I don’t want people to feel like they know what I’m going to do. That’s not fun; that’s not exciting. If you know what something is, there’s no reason to look [at it]. "What we were trying to do with I Am Legend — and I think we did a very good job with it — was to do both things. There are ideas and concepts, and there’s a real performance at the center of it. But you also have the bells and whistles of the blockbuster film." Global scope As is fairly evident, Smith loves to talk about the entertainment industry and how he works to sustain his lofty place within it. He believes that the key to his success is that he personally travels to foreign countries to promote his films there. ("Movie stars are not made in America. Movie stars are made when you can pull $20 million out of Brazil, or when you can do $48 million in Japan.") But, of late, the pattern that interests him the most is one he has noticed about the top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time. "One of the patterns in the top 10 is that there’s no comedy. I don’t know exactly why, but when people really love something, it’s dramatic. Ten out of the top-10 movies of all time are special effects. Nine of the top 10 are special effects with creatures. Eight of the top 10 are special effects with creatures and a love story.  . . .  When you look at the Academy Awards, it’s historical figures and mental illness. The patterns are undeniable." The chances that Seven Pounds will emerge as the stuff of box office or Oscar legend, however, are looking slim. The studio has labored hard to keep the central premise of the film under wraps. (In the 24 hours preceding my interview with Smith, I received calls from three publicists, insisting that I didn’t ask a certain question that might result in the secret being ruined.) But the Internet has been rife with spoiler-ridden blog posts that have relentlessly mocked the film. This month, a reviewer for the New York Post wrote that it "should be more accurately titled 'Seven Hundred Pounds of Schmaltz.’ " The film has not been mentioned in any of the year-end critics’ awards selections, and last week it failed to secure any Golden Globe nominations. Smith is comfortable with the potentially negative responses, and in fact thinks that they’re essential for keeping his career in high gear. "If everybody loves it, you’re not in the right spot, but if everybody hates it, you’re not in the right spot," he says. As for the question of whether it could prove to be his worst career move since The Legend of Bagger Vance in 2000: "Talk to me in three months," the actor says, laughing. ______________________________ Will Smith in his own words On the mixed critical response to last summer’s Hancock: "Chris Rock, he came up to me and said, 'Clearly I’m the only person on the face of the Earth who gets Hancock. We sat down and we did 45 minutes of him explaining how he got the concept. The idea of love versus duty, and all of those concepts . . . so somebody got it." On Barack Obama being elected president: "We had the family sitting in the house in Los Angeles. My parents came out; all my kids were there. I’ve always believed the ideas that America was founded on. I’ve always said in the press, 'I absolutely could be the president of the United States if I wanted to.’ That night I realized that I was living my life that way, but I didn’t totally believe it.  . . .  It was what I wanted to believe America was. . . . and when Barack [won], it was a validation of something that I’ve believed for 30 years." On whether he would be willing to star in the film version of Obama’s life: "He just wrote a fantastic ending — the story ends beautifully. It’s a fantastic story.  . . .  I should maybe secure the rights and get somebody started [on writing a screenplay]. It would have to come eight years from now.  . . .  W. was a tad too soon." On mentoring young actors: "Nick Cannon calls all the time. I spend a lot of time with Tyrese Gibson. It’s funny, because Quincy [Jones] would always say to me, 'How come you don’t call me more?’ I guess you don’t want to bother people. But I love talking about the road and the dangers [you face on] the path to your dreams." On the young actor who impresses him the most: "The person who is making flawless decisions right now is Shia LaBeouf. Flawless. He has one more step to make . . . and it’s to step all the way out front and say, 'This one is a Shia LaBeouf movie.’  . . .  If I were managing him, I would say hit one more out of the park.  . . .  Transformers is a Michael Bay movie. Indiana Jones is a Steven Spielberg movie. So he hasn’t shown us yet what’s a Shia LaBeouf movie." — Christopher Kelly http://www.star-telegram.com/movies/story/1088968.html