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Posted Dec 4th 2007 12:55PM by TMZ Staff Who needs bedtime stories when you have Will Smith?! The Fresh Prince held a press conference in Japan today, where one sleep-deprived (or extremely bored) reporter was caught catching some zzzs while Smith rambled on about "I Am Legend." Surprisingly, the ever charming Will didn't seem to mind. He must be used to it. http://www.tmz.com/2007/12/04/will-smith-p...press-to-sleep/ Video! :lol:

Will Smith, center, director Francis Lawrence, left, and producer Akiva Goldsman promote their new movie "I Am Legend" in Tokyo on Tuesday. Smith, 39, had a busy day, visiting the U.S. base at Yokota in the morning, before being flown back to Roppongi in a Black Hawk helicopter. He will attend the Japan premiere of "I Am Legend" on Wednesday night before heading to South Korea.

Will Smith has been in Tokyo to promote his new sci-fi flick, I Am Legend. Updated 14.36 Tue Dec 04 2007 The Hollywood star arrived in the city by helicopter and admitted "it felt good". "I heard no one had ever done that before," he said. "The Black Hawks (helicopters) are actually used in the film so I guess they were open to it. It was quite an experience to see Tokyo from the air like that." Smith plays Robert Neville, a scientist who ends up living alone in New York with only his dog for company, after the whole city is wiped out by a terrible disease. Immune to the virus, he spends the next three years looking for food and possible survivors - but they are all infected and are waiting for a chance to infect him too. I Am Legend opens in the UK on December 21. © Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. http://itn.co.uk/news/afad5aa292ed575500748faf97c76034.html

By Karu F. Daniels, AOL Black Voices Like with most of his well-marketed movie projects, Will Smith will just about be everywhere promoting his latest flick 'I Am Legend,' due to arrive in theaters on Dec. 14. The box-office superstar, who has roots in hip-hop, will be the subject of a one-hour special episode of 'The E! True Hollywood Story' premiering Dec. 8 at 6 p.m. et/pt on the E! Television Network. According to a production rep, the show will "provide a revealing look in the dynamic life of the entertainment power player and family man featuring interviews with his close friends and co-stars." "The movie business pays the bills really well, and the music business is more where my heart is, you know, because an album is like a snapshot of your life at that point and time," the former chart-topping rapper said in archival footage featured in the program. "I'll always make records as long as people wanna buy them." The Philadelphia native the initially came to prominence as one-half of the rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince in the late 1980s. He then took his persona to the small screen with a starring role in the beloved sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" where for six years fans watched Will mature on screen in the 1990s. Since launching his movie career in 1993 with 'Made in America' and 'Six Degrees of Separation,' he has repeatedly proven his versatility and box office appeal with blockbusters including 'Independence Day,' 'Men in Black,' 'Bad Boys,' and his Academy Award nominated turns in 'Ali' and "The Pursuit of Happyness.' And despite his mounting fame, the box office force of nature with that irrepressible boy-next-door charm has managed to stay clear of the tabloids and stay close with wife Jada Pinkett Smith and their growing family. 'The E! True Hollywood Story' plans to chronicle all of this and more. http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2007/12/0...ywood-swinging/

Sorry! :lolsign: :lolsign:

Oops, Will Smith gives away ending of latest film Tue Dec 4, 2007 6:52am EST TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Hollywood star Will Smith had the producer of his latest film holding his head in anguish on Tuesday after the actor gave away the ending of "I Am Legend". Speaking at a Tokyo news conference, Smith inadvertently revealed the plot, prompting co-producer and co-screenwriter Akiva Goldsman to shout: "Don't give away the ending!" Goldsman then pretended to be surprised, but it was all too late, and press handlers asked all present to keep the ending a secret, so as not to spoil it for viewers. Smith plays a virologist fighting a man-made virus in "I Am Legend", the film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same title. The movie premieres simultaneously in the United States and Japan on December 14. http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMo...ST2066420071204

Posted on December 3, 2007 2:11 PM Will Smith is continuing to come to the defense of Tom Cruise and Scientology, blasting critics who take aim at Tom’s devotion to the religion. “Tom is one of the greatest spirits that I met. He dedicates himself to making the world better,” Will told “Extra.” “And just because our beliefs are different, does that mean we are not allowed to be friends? Does that mean I need to take out my bible and club him with it?” Will continued, “Our twin towers came down because of ignorant religious fundamentalism. I am a student of world religions and my religion is love.” “Extra” caught up with Will at a junket for his new thriller, “I Am Legend,” in which he plays the last surviving man on earth after a virus wipes out mankind. The mega movie star regained the 25 pounds he has lost for the role and joked, “It’s a good thing at 210, but those Italian pants don’t fit so good.” The two-time Oscar nominee also declared he’s in the prime of his career, saying, “I’m going to make the best movies of my career over the next ten years. This is my peak. I’m coming up baby!” Still, whatever commercial and personal success he’s had in the last 20 years, Will says he owes it all to his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. “For me, I connect all aspects of life back to Jada,” Will said. VIDEO!

Ideas in Bible are 98 percent same as Scientology’s, star says Access Hollywood updated 9:25 p.m. ET Dec. 3, 2007 LOS ANGELES - Will Smith opened up this past weekend on “60 Minutes,” and he was equally revealing with Access Hollywood, as he defended friend Tom Cruise’s passion for Scientology. “What about Scientology do you embrace?” Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson asked the “I Am Legend” star. “I was introduced, [to] it by Tom and I’m a student of world religion,” Smith said. “I was raised in a Baptist household, I went to a Catholic school, but the ideas of the Bible are 98 percent the same ideas of Scientology, 98 percent the same ideas of Hinduism and Buddhism.” Impassioned and serious, Will came to the defense of his close friend, whom some have criticized for his passionate stand on Scientology. “It seems like it makes you angry that people have attacked him because of what he believes?” Robinson said. “When I sit and I talk with Tom Cruise, he is one of the greatest spirits that I’ve ever met – someone who is committed to making the world better,” Will said. “You have people [that] are attacking and wanna fight that don’t know nothing — how you gonna not know nothing about Scientology and attack somebody? It’s dangerous and it’s ignorant. “How can I condemn someone for what they believe and I believe that God was born from a pregnant virgin?” Will continued. He’s dead serious taking on Scientology adversaries, but Robinson did get to have a little fun with Smith as she talked to him about his new film, “I Am Legend.” Incredibly charged with emotion and crying, it will be another big hit at the box office and it all goes back to when he was 16. Smith says that it was his cheating first girlfriend motivated him to become a movie star. “I was so devastated that she cheated on me and I remember making a decision that she cheated on me ‘cause I wasn’t good enough right? And I remember laying in my mother’s bed crying and making a decision that if I was the best at everything, that my woman could never cheat on me,” he said. Copyright 2007 by NBC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. VIDEO!

December 03, 2007 For a second year in a row, Will Smith is co-starring with one of his offspring in a major motion picture, hitting big screens Dec. 14 in I am Legend with daughter Willow. The two may be father and daughter in real life, but when cameras started rolling, the actor’s parental rights were revoked. "I'm not allowed to talk to the kids while they're working,” he tells Entertainment Tonight. “Jada [Pinkett Smith] says, 'Once the movie starts you are their co-star and I am their mother. Any problems you have with those kids you can talk to their mother.'" The two-time Oscar nominee may have to get used to that rule as he envisions many more future projects for Willow, 7, and 9-year-old Jaden, who co-starred with his dad in last year’s The Pursuit of Happyness. "Entertainment is our family business. It's what we do, it’s how we eat, so at some level everyone is involved in the process." As for their marriage, Will and Jada are coming up on the 10 year mark on Dec. 31, a lifetime in Hollywood. And don’t think it didn’t come without work. The 39-year-old reveals the couple take time out to study their relationship and iron out the kinks in the midst of parenting and bustling film careers. “I've probably got 40 books under my belt on making relationships work,” he says. “If you're going to spend 60 hours per week working at your job and it takes you 60 hours per week to be successful at that job, you think with two hours a week and sex on Saturday night you're going to make the most important relationship of your life work?" And you can bet the clan, which also includes Will’s son Trey, 15, from his first marriage, will carve out quality time together for the holidays. A stickler for tradition, Jada is serious when it comes to Christmas, Will says, annually researching the places with the most snowfall for family to trek to. “We'll be in Denton, Montana because they have projected 14 inches of snow on Christmas Eve. We have a tradition, a Christmas Eve sleigh ride." And what will he give Jada for Christmas? Will won't reveal it, but adds, "Jada is very simple so big gifts fail horribly." For more on Jada, tune into ET tonight. http://www.okmagazine.com/news/view/3054

http://realgossip101.blogspot.com/2007/12/...s-daughter.html

Monday Night Conversation with Will Smith - I Am Legend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0ggyjUX_kk

4 Dec 2007, 0000 hrs IST,MADHUREETA MUKHERJEE ,TNN Will Smith, the rap-rocker-turned-Hollywood megastar, was trying to make me feel comfy in his LA stronghold. Folding his hands in traditional Indian greeting with ‘Salaam Namastey’, it was charming Will-wit at its best. When I asked in Ameri-canese, “How you doin’ Will?”, tongue firmly in cheek, he sighed, “I’m so good that I’m almost ashamed of it!” For a man who believes he can be the President of America; fly a space shuttle and achieve the unattainable — turning into a ‘legend’ isn’t way off the mark. After all, he’s been the first rapper to be nominated for an Academy Award twice (Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness). Now Willy boy is all set to save the world all over again (remember Independence Day and MIB?) from a man-made virus in his new sci-fi movie, I Am Legend. What everyone wants to learn from Will is how he gets into the ‘skeleton of the role’. Yes, he’s lost nearly 20 pounds for this character; and is looking almost skinny fit. “For me eating becomes something I do just because I have to. There is no desire or pleasure to eat. I just know that my brain isn’t going to function if I don’t eat. And working out is something I have to do. It’s important for me to stay in good physical condition — if you marry a real firecracker (Jada Pinkett-Smith) you gotta stay in shape!” he says, flashing his infectious smile. The Grammy winner apparently has a passion for Indian beauties and Bollywood movies. To be more specific, ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’ — Aishwarya Rai? He’d expressed his desire to cast her in Hitch, but Ash had ‘date’ issues (only movie dates, we presume?) and Eva Mendes stepped in. “Aishwarya Rai turns me down all the time. Everytime I ask her, she turns me down.” He pauses and exclaims, “Oh yes... Congrats Aishwarya! I heard she got married. But she ain’t working with Will Smith,” he expresses. For a man who featured in a celebrity magazine in a list of ‘50 Most Beautiful People in the World’, it is indeed a display of modesty. And what does he think of Mumbai, so akin in life-form to his favourite NYC. “I had a beautiful time in Mumbai. Sometime in June 2008, I’ll be making a trip,” he reveals. Looking for Indian beauties for his next venture, aha? “I want to make a movie in India, I’d really love to. I have discussed this with my friends too. I’ve told them ‘let’s get the script and idea and let’s make it happen’!” And knowing the ‘Will’-ful Smith, he’s gonna do it! http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_B...how/2591478.cms

Legend Emptied New York 12:00 AM, 03-DECEMBER-07 Will Smith, who stars in the upcoming SF movie I Am Legend, told reporters that the film got permission to block off streets in Manhattan to shoot scenes of an abandoned, post-apocalyptic New York—to the dismay of commuters. "Shooting in New York, especially something on this level, is difficult," Smith said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Nov. 30. "I would say that, percentage-wise, it's the most amount of middle fingers I've ever received in my career [laughs]. ... I was starting to think 'F you!' was my name." In I Am Legend, based on Richard Matheson's classic SF novel of the same name, Smith plays Robert Neville, a virologist who is the last apparent survivor of a plague that has emptied the world's cities. The movie shot in New York for several weeks. The locations the production used included New York's Grand Central Terminal, Madison Square Park, Washington Square Park, TriBeCa, Columbus Circle, Chinatown and Fifth Avenue, each of which had to be closed, emptied of traffic and pedestrians and dressed to appear abandoned. "We shut down six blocks of Fifth Avenue on a Monday morning," Smith said. "That was probably poor logistics, which was poor planning," he added, with tongue in cheek. Smith said that the experience was eerie. "You realize that you have never actually seen an empty shot of New York," he said. "When we were doing it, it's chilling to walk down the middle of Fifth Avenue. There is never an opportunity to walk down the middle of Fifth Avenue. At 2 o'clock in the morning on Sunday, you can't walk down the middle of Fifth Avenue. What happened is that it just created such a creepy energy." In one scene, Smith as Neville races down an empty Fifth Avenue in a cherry-red Shelby Cobra Mustang. "There is a shot in the movie with the U.N.," Smith added. "There is Broadway, and it puts such an eerie, icky kind of feeling on the movie when you see those shots. Logistically, it was a nightmare, but it absolutely created something that you can't do with green screen, and you can't do shooting another city instead of New York." I Am Legend opens Dec. 14. http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?c...=3&id=45951

How to Build a True Urban Jungle In I Am Legend, a virus hits in 2009, infecting everyone but Will Smith. By 2012, New York is rife with monsters at night yet empty during the day: a spookily beautiful dystopia. “Most apocalyptic movies are very dark, with burnt-out cities,” says director Francis Lawrence. “The truth is that if people left, nature would start reclaiming the city pretty quickly.” Creating the illusion of a verdant, depopulated Manhattan took $40 million of the film’s $150 million budget. And even with hundreds of assistants pushing pedestrians out of the frame, a visual-effects team still had to digitally remove each sign of life from shots, erasing people and darkening windows. Here’s how they constructed the opening scene, in which Smith hunts a deer in Times Square: Lasers mapped real buildings to within an inch, creating gray structures (1). Then the crew took thousands of digital photos, using them to add detail, while animators put in 3-D objects (2) that would eventually look like cars and billboards. The street itself, covered in grass, was practically the only thing built on a soundstage. The final result is what you see in (3). As for the TKTS booth (4), a hybrid of set design and CGI, it was based on plans for the unfinished renovation. And those billboards? “We had to decide which Broadway shows would still be open in 2009,” says visual-effects supervisor Janek Sirrs. And which Warner Bros. movies. “We’ve got an ad for Superman vs. Batman in there somewhere.” http://nymag.com/movies/features/41551/

5. WILL SMITH AGE 39 JOB TITLE Actor/producer SMART BECAUSE He has revitalized and redefined old-fashioned movie stardom in an era when movie stardom has become small and suspect. After hitting the scene in the mid-'80s as rapper Fresh Prince, then transitioning successfully to TV, Smith soon demonstrated surprising versatility and a knack for picking blockbusters that have given him license to do...well, anything, from Oscar-nominated drama (The Pursuit of Happyness) to event-film spectacle (I Am Legend). He credits Ali director Michael Mann with enlightening his filmmaking mind, and pure elbow grease for achieving a level of global popularity unprecedented for an African-American actor. Smith sums up his work ethic this way: ''I don't like to lose.'' Here are his keys to a winning career. SET A GOAL ''When I started in movies, I said, 'I want to be the biggest movie star in the world.' The biggest movie stars make the biggest movies, so [my producing partner James Lassiter and I] looked at the top 10 movies of all time. At that point, they were all special-effects movies. So Independence Day — no-brainer. Men in Black — no-brainer. I, Robot — no-brainer.'' PICK A ROLE MODEL ''Tom Hanks is the prototype of where I want to be. I admire how he is able to morph with the times and the audience. He is very savvy that way.'' WORK YOUR ASS OFF ''My father had a ridiculous work ethic. He started his own business. To him, kids were convenient employees. So from a really early age, I was working — and I was in charge.'' MANAGE YOUR FEAR ''After [1999' s disappointment]Wild Wild West, I got scared and started choosing incorrectly. For me, I did Bad Boys IIand Men in Black II out of fear. That was a bad time for me psychologically because I wasn't thinking the right way about filmmaking.'' STRETCH YOURSELF — ASAP ''The smartest move I ever made was Six Degrees of Separation. I was [thinking of] leaving The Fresh Prince of Bel-Airand needed to set a tone. Separation was so far at the other end of the spectrum of anything I had done. It became easier for me to convince Jerry Bruckheimer that I could do Bad Boys. It blew open a world of possibilities for me.'' http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20163012_46,00.html

Francis Lawrence on I Am Legend Re-shoots Source: ShockTillYouDrop.com December 3, 2007 Speaking openly with ShockTillYouDrop.com over the weekend in Beverly Hills, I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence addressed the talk of re-shoots that recently went down. For good or for worse, re-shoots on productions do often occur - yet on high-profile projects such as the latest "Legend" adaptation, when word leaks out, arched, suspicious eyebrows are raised and Internet chatter kicks up. In Lawrence's case, he confirms final shooting was completed less than a month ago. "I'm a huge fan of pick-ups and re-shoots," he tells us. "There's this misconception that it's always a bad thing and for me it's like saying a painter only has one shot at a brush stroke. That you can't erase and do it again." Due to this production's tremendous CGI grocery list of scenes in various stages of evolution (an estimated 800 shots, he says), "we weren't seeing fully-rendered shots until about a month ago. The movie starts to take on a whole other life. It's not only until later that you can judge a movie as a whole and go, 'Huh, maybe we should shoot this little piece in the middle, or tweak this a little bit.' It just so happened that our re-shoots revolved around the end of the movie." The director adds that re-shoots were called upon during the Keanu Reeves-starring Constantine and that he'd love to budget them into every film he tackles. "The studios just don't ever want to budget them in because it's like a contingency for them." More than happy to discuss the last-minute alterations Lawrence won't venture to say exactly what needed to change in the film's finale. http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=3861

Great news!!! :wickedwisdom:

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.

:rofl:

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