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Will Smith goes it alone Actor turned to POWs and inmates to grasp sense of loneliness faced by last human being on Earth Dec 03, 2007 04:30 AM Peter Howell Movie Critic HOLLYWOOD–Genial actor Will Smith has saved the world with a smile many times, in sci-fi movies like Independence Day, Men in Black and I, Robot. He's trying to rescue Earth again in I Am Legend, the blockbuster opening Dec. 14. But this time he's much more serious and utterly alone in the role of scientist Robert Neville, the last known human survivor of a cancer treatment that mutates into a global killer virus. Neville fights off rampaging zombies while searching for a cure. Smith also felt highly estranged offscreen while filming in New York City. The production forced many temporary road closures in Manhattan, causing massive traffic tie-ups and raised digits pointed in Smith's direction. "I would say percentage-wise it's the most amount of middle fingers I've ever received in my career," the rapper-turned-actor said over the weekend at the start of a press junket for I Am Legend. "I'm used to people liking me. When I come to town, it's like fun. I was starting to think F.U. was my name." I Am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence (Constantine) is the fourth and biggest screen adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel. Previous incarnations have included Charlton Heston (The Omega Man) and Vincent Price (The Last Man on Earth) playing Neville. The film was a real test for Smith, 39, a family man and social animal who doesn't naturally seek out solitude. To adjust to playing Neville, a role originally planned for Arnold Schwarzenegger, he sought out people who had been forced to survive alone. "You learn things about yourself that you never would even imagine. So in order to prepare for that we sat with former POWs and we sat with people who had been in solitary confinement. They said the first thing is a schedule. You will not survive if you do not schedule everything." The research included a meeting with convicted felon and ex-Black Panther Geronimo Pratt, who told Smith that he'd spent his time in solitary training roaches to bring him food, an exercise to stave off madness. Smith's not sure if he believes the roach story, but it contains at least an allegorical truth about what loneliness can do to the human mind. He put plenty of incessant scheduling and bizarre behaviour – including talking to mannequins – into his portrayal of Neville. Despite his considerable experience playing action heroes, Smith isn't sure how he'd react in a real catastrophe. He's honest enough to admit he'd be as frightened and confused as the rest of us. "Oh man, that's always a tough question. That's what interesting about playing characters like this," he said, his smile flashing as bright as his two gold earrings. "Because you get to explore and wonder how you would react ... You want to be tested to know what you would do, but you really don't want to be tested." The time when Smith most doubted his personal resolve was during the making of Ali, the 2001 biopic of boxing legend Muhammad Ali that netted Smith the first of his two Oscar nominations. He didn't know if he'd be prepared to go to prison over a matter of principle, the way Ali did when the champ refused to answer his Vietnam War draft under his birth name, Cassius Clay. "I just don't know if I would be enough man to give up everything I have right now the way Ali did it for that principle," Smith said. "And when I look at Robert Neville, what was there to live for? ... I like to believe I'd put out my chest and stand forward and march on and continue to fight for the future of humanity, but I'd probably find a bridge (and jump off)." At least he had family to keep him company during the arduous filming of I Am Legend. His 7-year-old daughter, Willow, one of two children Smith has with actor wife Jada Pinkett (Smith also has a son from a previous marriage), makes her feature debut playing Neville's daughter Marley in flashback scenes. Willow wanted the job after she saw how well her older brother Jaden did playing opposite his father in last year's The Pursuit of Happyness, a drama that earned Smith his second Best Actor Oscar nomination. Willow took to acting so naturally, Smith jokingly compared her to spotlight-seeking Paris Hilton, whereas Jaden is more work-driven, like Johnny Depp. "You kind of don't work with Willow, you work for Willow." Smith has other plans to get back into the fun side of life. He's hoping to reunite his hip-hop crew DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince for a concert tour next summer, with Toronto being a likely stop. http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/Movies/article/281904

Video! Oscar nominee WILL SMITH is talking to 'The Insider' about his new movie, 'I am Legend.' In the film, Will plays Robert Neville, the lone survivor in New York City of a virus that has nearly destroyed humanity. His character sends out radio messages, looking for other survivors, but has to guard against the mutants infected with the virus, all while trying to find a cure for the illness. 'I am Legend' hits theaters on Friday, December 14.

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Yeah, it's true. :thumbsup:

SUNDAY DECEMBER 02, 2007 11:30 AM EST By Brian Orloff and Lauren Lazaruk Will Smith has already made a star out of one of his children – son Jaden, 9, who costarred in 2006's The Pursuit of Happyness. Now, the acting bug has bitten again in the family. Smith's daughter Willow, 7, makes her onscreen debut in his sci-fi thriller I Am Legend, due in theaters Dec. 14. "She has a drive," Smith tells PEOPLE. "She has an energy and she just connects to human emotion. I think a big part was probably [seeing] Jaden after The Pursuit of Happyness. She saw what Jaden did, and she was like, 'I want that.'" Still, there shouldn't be too much tension between the young Smiths. Smith says they have different styles – and goals. "Jaden is [like] Johnny Depp," Smith says. "He just wants to do good work . . . He loves acting, he just wants to make good movies. "And Willow is Paris Hilton," Smith says, laughing. "Willow wants to be on TV." Smith says his daughter's strong personality contributes to her impressive work ethic. "You don't work with Willow," Smith says, teasing. "You work for Willow." In one grueling outdoor sequence for I Am Legend, temperatures dropped well below zero, Smith says – but that didn't stop his daughter from finishing her scenes. "Willow was out there and she has her stuff on and she's cold and she's getting a little irritable. And she looks at me and says, "Daddy, I don't care how low it goes. I'm going to finish.' Continues Smith: "I was like, 'Wow, that's good baby, because Daddy's leaving if it goes any lower then that 1." Another reason for the strong sense of professionalism: Will and Jada Smith make their children audition for their films. But when they told Willow she nabbed the role in I Am Legend, Smith says she turned to her brother, already a screen veteran, stuck out her tongue and teasingly taunted him. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20163838,00.html

I AM LEGEND Director Francis Lawrence and star Will Smith wipe out New York City and the world as they finally bring the long-gestating 'I am Legend' to theaters By Jake Rossen Posted December 2, 2007 11:00 AM As helicopters slice through the air, Coast Guard boats patrol the waters. On shore, NYPD officers and National Guardsmen stand watch. Loitering near the East River under the Brooklyn Bridge, 1,500 people wait for a command. When it comes, they flee in panic, screaming, pushing each other, and generally making an unholy dash for greener pastures. A mad scramble for Hannah Montana tickets? Not quite. It’s an evacuation scene director Francis Lawrence (“Constantine”) is coordinating for “I Am Legend,” a post-apocalyptic epic Warner Bros. will unspool in theaters on December 14. And despite rumors the flashback sequence cost over five million dollars to shoot, Lawrence isn’t letting anyone see him sweat. “Logistically, it was not the hardest thing for me to oversee,” he reveals. “I think dealing with something very small, like if you’re trying to hit very precise marks emotionally, can be a lot tougher than something that feels massive. It will all fall into place if you plan it properly.” Those plans have been nothing if not carefully considered; for over a decade, the studio has been trying to ignite an adaptation of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel about a virus that wipes out nearly all of mankind. While the book has been filmed twice before (1964’s “The Last Man on Earth” and 1971’s “The Omega Man”), execs were uneasy about committing to the massive budgets demanded by talent like Ridley Scott (“Blade Runner”) and Arnold Schwarzenegger. “There have been story issues,” admits Lawrence, whose interest was piqued after reading both an early draft and the novel. “They hadn’t cracked what the creatures were. It’s been a tough one. Different people have tried to tackle it in different ways.” It wasn’t until Lawrence and screenwriter/producer Akiva Goldsman (“A Beautiful Mind”) took a pass that the studio finally flipped open their checkbook. Helping matters along was a commitment from Will Smith, whose film presence has generated nearly two billion dollars in box office. “We went to Will because he had been involved with it before,” Lawrence says. “Akiva had a relationship with him because of ‘I, Robot’ and I knew him from the old music video days. He liked our take, but he also liked some of the stuff that [screenwriter] Mark Protosevich had written. So the three of us—Akiva, Will, and I—just sort of sat in a room for hours at a time and days on end, and hashed out our version of the story.” “We’ve designed something completely aggressive and new and different and we’re sneaking a small character drama into the middle of a big blockbuster,” Smith told IGN.com. “So we’ll see how it works out.” What the trio came up with was a riff on “Cast Away,” where, like Tom Hanks’ stranded FedEx employee, Smith’s virologist is forced to battle his own personal demons in isolation while simultaneously opposing the violence of the environment. Hanks never had to worry about nocturnal flesh-eaters, though. “They have vampire-like qualities,” Lawrence says of the undead immune to the plague. “They are infected people that are living with a chronic disease. There are a percentage of people who get sick and can live with it. But the virus has changed their metabolism. Their heart rate is different, their breathing is different, and their appetite is different. They’re sensitive to light. “And aggressive.” When he’s not defending his life, Smith’s activities in a barren New York are catch-as-catch-can. “He’s hitting golf balls off the back of stealth fighters on the aircraft carrier Intrepid,” Lawrence says of his rec time. “Or he’s hunting deer in Manhattan. That was the challenge, really. How do you make that engaging, how do you make people feel the isolation and the loneliness without putting them to sleep? I’m proud of the fact that I think we did it, and did it very well.” While Smith may (or may not) meet up with other survivors, he’s guaranteed at least one companion: a German Shepherd named Abbie. “She was a fantastic dog. There was a very specific rule that nobody was to interact with her or engage her in any way on set. What you get is a real strong bond with Will.” While Lawrence waits for the public reception to his latest work, he’s mulling over a reboot of the Snow White mythology (“Snow and the Seven”) and the further adventures of John Constantine. “We’ve talked about it a lot. There’s nothing more personal than a guy dying of cancer. I think everyone would love to do it if the right idea and story came around.” And if the worst happens, and Lawrence finds himself the last man standing? “Man, I’d find a boat and go to Bora Bora. I’d spend my life fishing and swimming in the lagoon.” http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/006532479.cfm

Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Monday, December 3, 2007 YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — The venue for actor Will Smith’s Tuesday visit to Yokota has been moved to the Sakura Shell on the east side of the base, officials said. He’s scheduled to address fans, sign autographs and pose for photos, starting at about 11 a.m. The Hollywood film star’s appearance was originally planned for Yokota’s Fuel Cell Hangar near the AAFES movie theater on the base’s east side. A large crowd is expected so the base is working on a shuttle schedule to avoid parking problems, according to a 374th Airlift Wing spokesman. Smith is coming to Japan for the world premiere of his new movie, “I Am Legend,” set for Wednesday at the Tokyo International Forum. http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?sectio...p;article=50687

I AM LEGEND: 7 Film Clips, 2 Featurettes and Behind the Scenes Footage! Written by Stephanie Sanchez Saturday, 01 December 2007 The IESB has your first look at seven new film clips, two featurettes and behind the scenes footage from Warner Bros. I AM LEGEND. Directed by Francis Lawrence, starring Will Smith and is due out December 14th! This film is tracking incredibly as tons of Will Smith fans are dying to see it! Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable... and manmade. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City... and maybe the world. But he is not alone. He is surrounded by "the Infected"—victims of the plague who have mutated into carnivorous beings who can only exist in the dark and who will devour or infect anyone or anything in their path. For three years, Neville has spent his days scavenging for food and supplies and faithfully sending out radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. All the while, the Infected lurk in the shadows, watching Neville's every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind's last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But his blood is also what The Infected hunt, and Neville knows he is outnumbered and quickly running out of time. Watch IESB’s I AM LEGEND film clips, featurettes and behind the scenes footage by clicking on the links below. http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_c...5&Itemid=99

11.30.07 By Jeremy Smith I don't mean to toot my own trumpet, but I got by far the best answer out of Will Smith at today's I Am Legend press conference. And all I had to do was ask about the latest on Empire, his next collaboration with Michael Mann. Granted, I didn't get much in the way of plot detail, but merely invoking Mann's name got Big Will boasting Ali-like about the state of his own art. Check it out: Q: Will, you've mentioned Michael Mann a few times. It was recently announced that you might be collaborating with him again on Empire, where it sounds like you might be playing a Rupert Murdoch kind of media mogul or Charles Foster Kane maybe. I'm wondering if you could talk about what that's going to be. They didn't give away too many details in Variety. Will Smith: There's not a lot of details yet. It's just something we've been considering. It's an idea. Richard III is the model that we're working off of in that media world, but it's just ideas right now. There's not a lot to talk about right now. But my cinematic education really reached a critical mass in working with Michael Mann. Something happened, something clicked... and I feel like over the next ten years, I will make the best movies of my career. I feel like an athlete, and I just caught my prime. I'm in the best physical condition of my life; I'm mentally prepared, and love what I do. I feel like this is truly the time for me to make my artistic sprint in my career. It's already been six years since Ali, but judging from the quality of his work in The Pursuit of Happyness and I Am Legend, Will definitely appears to be surging creatively. I still consider Ali his career-best performance, so when he says he's going "make the best movies of my career" over the next decade, I'm not going to doubt him, especially if Empire becomes a reality. Which it should. In fact, based on just the thumbnail offered up by Will, I think I'd rather see this than The Winter of Frankie Machine. http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=news&id=12756

Will Smith studying Scientology By KEVIN WILLIAMSON -- Sun Media BEVERLY HILLS - Will Smith isn't getting jiggy with Scientology. At least not completely. The 39-year-old superstar yesterday denied speculation he was converting to the controversial religion. In a recent magazine article, he'd acknowledged studying it with his friend Tom Cruise. "I don't necessarily believe in organized religion. I was raised in a Baptist household, went to a Catholic church, lived in a Jewish neighborhood and had the biggest crush on the Muslim girl one neighborhood over," he said during a news conference for his latest film, the end-of-the-world thriller I Am Legend. "Tom introduced me to the idea and I'm a student of world religion, so to me it's hugely important for me to have knowledge - to understand what people are doing, what are the big ideas, what are people talking about it. I believe my connection to my higher power is separate from everybody's." http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Artists/S/Smith...699618-sun.html

Reel Time: How Will Smith became the singular sensation in I Am Legend Posted: November 30, 2007, 3:28 PM by Brad Frenette http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/1069/willzv5.jpg I am relieved for I Am legend. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s deal to make I Am Legend fell through 10 years ago. Instead we have Will Smith defining the last man standing after a bizarre pandemic in director Francis Lawrence’s remake. And that’s why I am relieved. It’s worth the decade wait minus Arnie and plus Smith. Four previous movie versions of the classic 1954 Richard Matheson novel have made their way to the silver screen. The more memorable films include one with Vincent Price doing his thing in the 1964 picture which almost gets it right mainly because Matheson wrote the script. The Omega Man, seven years later, starred Charlton Heston, and eliminates Matheson’s vampire business but still has a cult following enamored with its atmospherics. Now make way for Mr. Smith Goes To Flesh Eater Town. In the latest rendition, I Am Legend is a hybrid monster mash mixed with sci-fi cautionary tale. In the feature opening theatrically Dec. 14, Smith plays virologist Robert Neville trying to survive in New York City after a man-made virus wipes out its population and maybe most of the inhabitants of the globe. Naturally immune, the scientist is running out of time to reverse thedisaster as cannibalistic mutant humans close in on him - especially whennight falls. Scary and spooky and haunting at the same time. The fact that cast and crew had to film the movie in bustling Manhattan made for some interesting logistical problems, lots of snarled traffic jams and angry New Yorkers, which the actor admitted was not always met with understanding. “I was starting to think that F. U. was my name, said Smith, 39, at a Beverly Hills hotel press conference on Friday. On the other hand, he agreed that shooting in the isolated streets of what was usually a busy city helped him get into the role of the last man standing. “It was chilling to walk down the middle of Fifth Ave.,” he said. “It created such an eerie icky feeling.” But it also gave Smith a sense of accomplished to finally be in the middle of movie he had wanted to do for the last five years. And he said the impetus was not define another heroic character or to make some statement about an Afro-American making sacrifices. In fact, he didn’t think of it in those terms, but rather as a warning sign for over ambitious pursuits as indicated by scientists discovering a cure for cancer that ends up as the root of the infection. In the original book and previous films a nuclear war aftermath was the scene setter. But Smith pushed for the generalized pandemic approach to make a broader statement about man versus nature conflict. And as he said, little did he know he was about to embark on a journey of self-awareness as an actor and as a person, since most of his scenes are by himself or with his German Shepherd which accompanies his character on forays into the empty Manhattan streets. “You learn things about yourself,” said Smith of acting alone. He also said he talked to ex-prisoners who had suffered through solitary confinement, learning from them that “their mental space” was their only truth. “And I think I’m a better actor for having created that,” he said. Director Lawrence who made a name for himself at the helm of the gothic hitConstantine, said Smith was a delight to work with because of that sort of commitment. “He never lost his enthusiasm or his energy,” he said of the actor. And yes Willow Smith, Smith’s daughter, makes her film debut as Marley, his character’s daughter daughter seen in flashbacks. Last year, Smith’s son Jaden made his debut in last year’s ThePursuit Of Happiness, which earned dad his second Oscar nomination afterAli. It seems it was Willow’s turn. Comparing the two kids would be a risky proposition for anybody but Smith, but jumps right into it. “You don’t work with Willow,” he said smiling. “You work for her.” In non- I Am Legend news, Smith confirmed that he was planning to revive his Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff group next July when he promotes his super hero comedy Hancock, due out in July as well. He was also honest about his recent Scientology association, saying that he studied it like he has other religions. “I love my God but I create my own connections,” he said. - Bob Thompson [Will Smith stars as Robert Neville in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' sci-fi action adventure "I Am Legend." Courtesy Barry Wetcher/SMPSP] http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/t...-am-legend.aspx

Will Smith: My Work Ethic Is "Sickening" StarTells Steve Kroft It Compensates For Average Talent PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 30, 2007 (CBS) He commands more than $20 million a picture and has a string of blockbuster hits, but Will Smith says he’s not a particularly talented actor, just a really hard-working one. The star of such mega-hits as "Independence Day" and "Men in Black" talks to 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft for a profile to be broadcast this Sunday, Dec. 2, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. "I’ve never viewed myself as particularly talented. I’ve viewed myself as…slightly above average in talent," says the actor, whose latest film, "I Am Legend," opens in two weeks. "Where I excel is with [a] ridiculous, sickening work ethic," he tells Kroft. "While the other guy’s sleeping, I’m working. While the other guy’s eating, I’m working. While the other guy’s making love, I mean, I’m making love, too, but I’m working really hard at it!" 60 Minutes takes Smith back to his old neighborhood in West Philadelphia to see his high school, where he runs into the school’s principal, a friend of his. Cameras also capture him in front of his old house, where he jokes with his father, the man responsible for instilling his work ethic. Smith tells the story of his father ordering him and his brother, ages 12 and nine at the time, to rebuild a brick wall in front of his business. The boys thought their father was crazy, but he said to them, "Now, don’t you ever tell me there is something that you can’t do." "I just put my head down and laid the first brick," remembers Smith. And they did it, finally finishing the wall a year and a half later. It’s still there. Video!

I Am Legend Worldwide Banners http://moviesoonhk.com/wp-content/gallery/ial/IAL_Tokyo.jpg The new Will Smith film, I Am Legend debuts here in the States on Dec. 14th. I was unsure about seeing this movie, until I saw the latest trailer, which looks rather cool. And now Filmonic shows us the I Am Legend Global Banners for the film. Each banner shows a different city in the aftermath of the virus that destroys humanity. You can see the city of Tokyo in the banner at the top of this post. Filmonic has a few more, as does MoviesOnHK, with Seoul and Taipei here. I don't know about you, but I really like these images. I think WB has done a great job here promoting the movie, while still being interesting. I am no actually thinking I'll see this movie in the theater sometime over the Christmas holiday. Source!

Posted on Nov 30, 2007 3:48:17 PM Will Smith is riding a huge promotional wave before "I Am Legend" opens. The star of "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" decorates the Dec. 7 cover of Entertainment Weekly. The magazine dubs him one of "The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood." He comes in at No. 5 -- behind Judd Apatow, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and maverick agent Ari Emanuel. But Smith is ahead of No. 6 Meryl Streep. (How do magazines figure out these things? Silly, eh?) And "60 Minutes" will profile Smith on Sunday. Listen: This is one down-to-earth superstar. "I've never viewed myself as particularly talented," two-time Oscar nominee Smith tells Steve Kroft. "I've viewed myself as ... slightly above average in talent." The secret of his success? "Where I excel is with [a] ridiculous, sickening worth ethic," Smith says. "While the other guy's sleeping, I'm working. While the other guy's eating, I'm working. While the other guy's making love, I mean, I'm making love, too, but I'm working really hard at it!" For "60 Minutes," Smith visits his high school in West Philadelphia, returns to his former home there and opens up about his father's influence on him. The CBS newsmagazine airs at 7 p.m. Sunday on WKMG-Channel 6. http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertain...smith-tell.html

I Am Legend - TV Spot Bilingual http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcJcIhiHfAM I Am Legend - TV Spot 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfjvvFh5RJ4 I Am Legend - TV Spot 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rPj-1Ub1fo I am Legend - TV Spot 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-rMfB6tVd8 I am Legend - TV Spot 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwKhmmHRND4 I am Legend - TV Spot 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObqjDk8P5W4 I am Legend - TV Spot 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1OIxWg7DJ0

I Am Legend PG-13 'Bradley' has been playing close attention to the TV spots for multiple tentpoles coming our way this December and has recently noticed that I Am Legend has (finally) been rated PG-13. I Am Legend PG-13 No surprise here. The film looked like it could be R, but there is nothing better than PG-13 for a film such as this during the month of December; family films have been a hit this season. R would have excited me a bit, sure, but sometimes the studios have to play it safe. I've been watching the TV spots for I Am Legend every night and had begun to wonder when Warner Bros. would finally get this thing screened by the MPAA. It seems they have, as the TV spots now come stamped with the PG-13 rating along with the film's official site. Why PG-13? Intense sequences of sci fi action and violence. http://www.canmag.com/nw/9742-i-am-legend-pg-13

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Thursday, November 29, 2007 Will Smith has revealed that he might never play a baddie because he likes making people laugh too much. The Hitch star, who returns to the big screen next month in I Am Legend, told Empire magazine: "I enjoy inspiring good feelings, that is fun for me. Comedy I would say is my most fun, how people react to The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, there is nothing that matches that. "I haven't been inspired to play a bad guy, I'm sure there is a bad guy at some point that has the right message. Scarface had the right message about power and drugs and it showed you exactly where that mess was going to end up, so even though it's a tragic story there is a positive message in it." I Am Legend sees Will play scientist Robert Neville, the last man on earth after a deadly virus wipes out New York. But he soon discovers he's not alone and there are mutant survivors of the plague watching his every move. http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.html?i...mp;in_a_source=

Six "I Am Legend" Posters Today we have six Korean posters for the upcoming Will Smith film "I Am Legend." They feature major cities all over the world (Paris, London and more) in complete ruins. "I Am Legend" follows Robert Neville (Smith), the last human being on earth. A mysterious plague has transformed all humans into an army of vampires and Neville spends each day preparing for the battles he must wage at night in order to survive. Directed by Francis Lawrence (Constantine), the film hits conventional and IMAX theaters on December 14th. http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=6742

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007 By REBECCA WINTERS KEEGAN The Legend of Will Smith. How one man built a global movie-magnet machine. Will Smith plots his strategy for world domination from the head of the kingly wooden dining table in his sweeping Calabasas, Calif., home. "We call it Global Willing," says Smith of his travel itinerary to warm up the globe for his next film, I Am Legend, in which he plays the only survivor of a man-made plague that has wiped out humanity. "We're going to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Korea ..." It's the morning after Thanksgiving, and Smith, 39, is sleepy-eyed and unshaven after hosting 30 friends and family members for dinner. His wife Jada Pinkett Smith enters with breakfast and a kiss, asking, "Want jelly with that, baby?" Even Hollywood's Genghis Khan needs some tenderness before he sacks the box office. With his ready grin, jug ears and baritone belly laugh, Smith's image is that of the happy-go-lucky Everyguy. But you don't accrue $4.4 billion in worldwide box-office receipts and two Oscar nominations without machine-like drive. Smith's four most recent movies--The Pursuit of Happyness, Hitch, Shark Tale and I, Robot--have each grossed more than $300 million worldwide, vaulting him into a category usually reserved for white guys named Tom. Because Smith has mastered the delicate art of appearing artless, few moviegoers realize that his is one of Hollywood's most meticulously planned and executed careers. Willard Christopher Smith Jr. hatched his scheme for global supremacy at 16, after his first girlfriend cheated on him. "In my mind, she cheated because I wasn't good enough. I remember making the decision that I will never not be good enough again," he says. Sure, he may have overcompensated, but how else are movie stars made? Smith grew up the second of four children in middle-class West Philadelphia; his parents Willard and Caroline divorced when he was 13. From his father, who worked seven days a week running a refrigerator company, Smith inherited his work ethic. From his mother, a school-board employee, he derived the notion that "education is the elixir for all problems," he says. "Every problem Jada and I have ever had, we found the answer in a book." The Smiths have a family library stocked with everything from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hinduism to homeschooling texts for their children--Willow, 7, and Jaden, 9, and Smith's son from his first marriage, Trey, 15. His high school teachers nicknamed Smith "Prince" for his knack for charming his way out of trouble. It was at a party in the basement of a neighborhood DJ, "Jazzy" Jeff Townes, that Smith's magnetism first paid off professionally. He won over Townes and the DJ's manager, James Lassiter, who has steered Smith's career for the past 22 years and who runs Overbrook Entertainment, the production company named for the high school they attended. Before Smith finished his senior year, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince released their first album, and Smith decided to forgo college for show business. The duo's parent-friendly, PG-rated rap would earn the first Grammy for a hip-hop act. While touring Asia with Run-D.M.C., Smith witnessed "10,000 Japanese b-boys [hip-hop fans] at the airport," he says. When DJ Run took off his Adidas sneaker and held it up, "10,000 kids took their shoes off. It was such a bizarre, exciting, intimidating experience." Smith, who once saw acclaim in his Philly neighborhood as his life's goal, began to dream about conquering London and Tokyo. "Now it's an addiction for me to see where my artistry can touch people." In 1990, at 21, the rapper got his first acting gig, essentially playing himself--a likable city kid--living the lush life on the class-conscious sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Lassiter told him, "'Listen, if we're going out to L.A., we probably should have a goal,'" Smith says. "I said, 'I want to be the biggest movie star in the world.'" Lassiter, seeing promise that few others in Hollywood would, took his friend seriously and found a list of the 10 top-grossing movies of all time. "We looked at them and said, O.K., what are the patterns?" Smith recalls. "We realized that 10 out of 10 had special effects. Nine out of 10 had special effects with creatures. Eight out of 10 had special effects with creatures and a love story." Meanwhile, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was becoming a hit, and Smith was soaking up an acting education on the show's set. Waiting backstage, he would mouth the lines of guest stars like Don Cheadle as the more experienced actor delivered them. "Will was so intent," says the show's creator, Andy Borowitz. "He was like a kid waiting for his bar mitzvah." In 1992, when Borowitz accepted an NAACP Image award for the series and thanked "the next President of the United States, Will Smith," his leading man relished the moment. "I got the feeling he loved it not totally ironically," Borowitz says. Despite his growing fan base, in Smith's first five years in Los Angeles, he couldn't get a meeting with a director or studio. "Nobody cared," says Lassiter. "'You're a rapper. You got lucky, and you got this television show, but that's all you can do.'" At this point, many would-be movie stars would have been weighing Plan B. Not Smith. "I don't want to get too metaphysical, but by even contemplating a Plan B, you almost create the necessity for a Plan B," he says. Smith's role as a slick young con man claiming to be Sidney Poitier's son in the 1993 drama Six Degrees of Separation turned some heads. But it was the cheerful, over-the-top 1995 action film Bad Boys that established the erstwhile Prince as a box-office royal in the making. Since then, he has consistently delivered hits, most often as a good-natured guy saving the rest of us from the trauma of aliens, robots, crooks or poor dating habits. Commercial disappointments, like the golfing flop The Legend of Bagger Vance, are rare. "I look at movies in their essence," Smith says. "Will that idea sell? The last man on Earth is the essence of I Am Legend. It's a concept that's primal and connects to all those ideas of loneliness and abandonment." Occasionally Smith chooses art over commerce, on a character drama like Ali or Pursuit of Happyness, his two Oscar-nominated roles, but even then his pragmatism outweighs his passion. "Pursuit of Happyness is essentially a movie about a black homeless guy who gets a job," he says. "There's nowhere near my fee for that movie. This thing has to be under $50 million." The downbeat Happyness surprised everyone, not least of all Smith, by earning $305 million worldwide. The math of moviemaking enthralls Smith, who calls himself a "student of universal patterns." To hear him talk about analyzing the weekend box office with Lassiter is to see flashes of the aspiring engineer who almost attended MIT. "Every Monday morning, we sit down--'O.K., what happened this weekend, and what are the things that resemble things that have happened the last 10, 20, 30 weekends?' It is so much fun to look at something everyone's looking at to see if a different pattern comes out for you." With Legend, Smith hopes to break one of Hollywood's rigid rules. "Summer movies are about things that happen, and fall movies are about how people respond to things that happen," he says. "The drill was to try to blend those two things, to make a movie that is 100% about following the character [scientist Robert Neville] and how the character reacts to what happened [the destruction of humanity]." Smith traditionally owns July 4 weekend, with things-that-happen movies like Independence Day. "There is a youthful energy that I have that fits during that time of release and rejuvenation," he says, expressing a level of self-knowledge rare for people who make their living playing make-believe. For a December release like Legend, "I have to focus more 'cause it's not my natural lane." A career axiom that Smith figured out early on still stymies plenty of big-name American actors. "Movie stars are made with worldwide box office," Smith says. "You put a movie out in the U.S., and let's say it breaks even. Then the studio needs you to go around the world and get profit. Being able to get $30 mil in England, 37 in Japan, 15 in Germany is what makes the studio support your movies differently than they support other actors' movies." He has built his global audience systematically: with each film, Smith introduces himself to a new people, often piggybacking on a local event that will attract worldwide attention. For Men in Black II, he toured in South Korea during the World Cup; for Hitch, he hit Brazil during carnival; for next year's fallen-superhero tale Hancock, he's trying to get into Beijing during the Olympics. Smith applies the same kind of arithmetic and discipline to his personal life, and as a result, he enjoys a Hollywood rarity: a stable 10-year marriage. "Our first official date was with a relationship counselor," he says. "The math of it is simple. Start while it's good. Do it three times a week while you're laughing and still having fun. You get so much more work done. You head off problems. Do it during the ether time, and do it aggressively. There's nothing you've ever been successful at that you didn't work on every day." Who knew one man could learn so much from being cheated on at 16? http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...89234-1,00.html

Nov 28, 2007, 04:00 PM | by Sean Smith Power Lists are so over. Magazines, including EW, have done them for decades, but as way of digging deep into Hollywood's DNA, "power" has become sort of beside the point. "Power" just tells you who's in charge. It doesn't tell you who's shaking things up. So EW decided to go in search of the people who are rocking the industry's world this year, the people with ideas – innovative, creative, dangerous, renegade ideas – who are changing the way movies are made. We went looking for the 50 Smartest People in Hollywood. Below are the results of three months of constant research, hundreds of hours of conversations with the brightest minds in the industry, and weeks of heated debate. We started with a list of more than 300 contenders, and it proved surprisingly hard to chop them down to a trim 50. We had to establish strict criteria to determine who would – and who would not – make the cut. Here were our rules: 1) Every person on the list had to be smart not just in general, but smart right now. They had to be leading the industry forward in some way, today. 2) The list would be about the movie business only. (We'll do a Smartest People in TV list, too, next year). 3) The list would represent a broad range of intelligence in the movie business – not just the suits and the stars, but the composers and the costume designers, too. 4) "Smart" could mean many things. It encompasses books smarts and street smarts, financial genius and emotional intelligence. We weren't interested in IQ. What mattered was the originality of each person's thinking and the reach of their ideas beyond the borders of their own careers. 5) At 50 names, the list could not possibly include every smart person in Hollywood. Each person on this list needed to help paint a portrait of where movies are today and where they're headed. Each person on this list tells a different story about the movie business today. They are all smart, certainly, but they also symbolize, collectively, Hollywood now. 6) We ranked them first, and primarily, by their overall impact on the industry this year, and then factored in the influence of each person within their own profession. It allows for a diverse and surprising list, where a cinematographer (Emmanuel Lubezki) can take the #24 slot, while an Oscar winning director (Michael Moore) can come in below him at #27. It will also give you, we're sure, plenty to argue with us about. We hope you're happy to see a few familiar faces rewarded on this list and are intrigued by the people you've never heard of. You'll find the complete package – with #5 entry Will Smith on the cover – on newsstands this week and, of course, here on EW.com, along with a quiz to test your Hollywood IQ. (Yes, you'll be graded, but we won't tell anyone your score.) Feel free to tell us how brilliant or idiotic our choices on the comments section below. And make sure to tell us who you'd nominate as one of the 50 Smartest People in Hollywood. We'll take it under advisement. The list after the jump... Entertainment Weekly's 50 Smartest People in Hollywood: 1. Judd Apatow, director/writer/producer 2. Steven Spielberg, director/producer 3. James Cameron, director/producer 4. Ari Emanuel, partner of the Endeavor Agency 5. Will Smith, actor/producer 6. Meryl Streep, actor 7. Peter Rice, president of Fox Searchlight 8. Tyler Perry, actor/director/writer/producer 9. David Heyman, producer 10. John Knoll, visual-effects supervisor of Industrial Light & Magic 11. Brian Grazer, producer 12. Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios 13. George Clooney, actor/director/producer 14. Jerry Bruckheimer, producer 15. Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment 16. Peter Jackson, director/producer 17. Will Ferrell, actor/producer 18. Robert Zemeckis, director 19. Tom Rothman, co-chair of Fox Filmed Entertainment 20. Ben Stiller, actor/director/producer 21. Johnny Depp, actor/producer 22. Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation 23. Brad Bird, writer/director 24. Emmanuel Lubezki, cinematographer 25. Zack Snyder, director 26. Stacey Snider, CEO of DreamWorks SKG 27. Michael Moore, documentarian 28. Paul Greengrass, director 29. J.J. Abrams, producer/director 30. Jodie Foster, actor/director 31. Kathleen Kennedy, producer 32. Thelma Schoonmaker, editor 33. Angelina Jolie, actor 34. Sacha Baron Cohen, actor/writer/producer 35. Tim Palen, co-president of film marketing for Lionsgate 36. Modi Wiczyk, co-CEO of Media Rights Capital 37. Guillermo del Toro, writer/producer/director 38. Diablo Cody, screenwriter 39. Mary Zophres, costume designer 40. Jeff Skoll, founder of Participant Productions 41. Stefan Sonnenfeld, president of Company 42. Daniel Battsek, president of Miramax Films[ 43. Beth Swofford, agent at CAA 44. Roderick Jaynes, editor 45. Cate Blanchett, actor 46. Jeff Walker, Comic-Con impresario 47. Amy Powell, senior vice president of interactive marketing at Paramount 48. Gustavo Santaolalla, composer 49. Sarah Polley, actor/writer/director 50. Ben Affleck, actor/director/writer/producer http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2007/11/smart-list-intr.html

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WHAT: WILL SMITH will be immortalized at one of Hollywood's most famous landmarks when he places his hands and feet in cement in the forecourt of the world-famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre. WHO: WILL SMITH, the star of the upcoming action thriller I AM LEGEND, a two-time Oscar nominee for THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS and ALI and the star of such hit films as MEN IN BLACK, INDEPENDENCE DAY and I, ROBOT. WHEN: Monday, December 10 WHERE: Grauman's Chinese Theatre ----------------------- ----------------------------- Crew Arrivals: 10:30 AM 6925 Hollywood Blvd. Ceremony: 11:30 AM Hollywood, CA - Your coverage of this event is invited - This film has not yet been rated by the MPAA. www.iamlegend.com For downloadable general press information and photos from I AM LEGEND, please visit: http://press.warnerbros.com I AM LEGEND will be released nationwide on December 14, 2007. The film will distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures. http://www.newsobserver.com/1566/story/796548.html :clap2: :birthday: :adore: