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] felt Will Smith gave a "graceful and effortless performance", and also noted the "third-act collapse". He felt the movie "does ponder some pretty deep questions about the collapse and persistence of human civilization".<ref>{{cite news | author=] | url= | title=Man About Town, and Very Alone | publisher=] | date=] | url = http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/movies/14lege.html | accessdate=2007-12-14}}</ref> Dana Stevens of ] felt the movie loses its way around the hour mark, as "the Infected just aren't that scary."<ref name=slate/> ] critic Bob Mondello noted the film's subtext concerning global terrorism and that this aspect made the film fit in perfectly with other, more direct cinematic explorations of the subject.<ref>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17260869</ref> Richard Roeper gave the film a positive review on the television program '']'', commending Will Smith as being in "prime form", also saying there are "some amazing sequences" and that there was "a pretty heavy screenplay for an action film." <ref>{{cite web|url = http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper/index2.html?sec=1&subsec=5561|title = I Am Legend review |accessdate=2007-12-25}}</ref> ] felt Will Smith gave a "graceful and effortless performance", and also noted the "third-act collapse". He felt the movie "does ponder some pretty deep questions about the collapse and persistence of human civilization".<ref>{{cite news | author=] | url= | title=Man About Town, and Very Alone | publisher=] | date=] | url = http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/movies/14lege.html | accessdate=2007-12-14}}</ref> Dana Stevens of ] felt the movie loses its way around the hour mark, as "the Infected just aren't that scary."<ref name=slate/> ] critic Bob Mondello noted the film's subtext concerning global terrorism and that this aspect made the film fit in perfectly with other, more direct cinematic explorations of the subject.<ref>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17260869</ref> Richard Roeper gave the film a positive review on the television program '']'', commending Will Smith as being in "prime form", also saying there are "some amazing sequences" and that there was "a pretty heavy screenplay for an action film." <ref>{{cite web|url = http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper/index2.html?sec=1&subsec=5561|title = I Am Legend review |accessdate=2007-12-25}}</ref>

The final 30 minutes of the movie seem to be missing something. Ryan is wrong.


==References== ==References==

Revision as of 22:46, 26 December 2007

2007 American film
I Am Legend
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFrancis Lawrence
Written byScreenplay:
Akiva Goldsman
Mark Protosevich
Novel:
Richard Matheson
Produced byAkiva Goldsman
David Heyman
Erwin Stoff
StarringWill Smith
CinematographyAndrew Lesnie
Edited byWayne Wahrman
Music byJames Newton Howard
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Village Roadshow
Release dateDecember 14 2007
Running time100 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$150 million
Box office$171 million (worldwide)

I Am Legend is a 2007 post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It is the third film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend, following 1964's The Last Man on Earth and 1971's The Omega Man. Smith plays an immune Robert Neville, Earth's possibly only human survivor of a man-made virus. He works to create a cure, but is stalked by nocturnal mutant survivors of the plague.

Warner Bros. Pictures began developing I Am Legend in 1994, and various actors and directors have been attached to the project, though it never entered production due to budgetary concerns. Production began in 2006 in New York City, filming mainly on location in the city, including a $5 million scene at the Brooklyn Bridge, the most expensive scene ever filmed in the city at the time. Warner Bros. launched a tie-in comic and an online multiplayer game on Second Life as part of its marketing campaign. I Am Legend was released December 14 2007 in the United States. Despite mixed reviews, its opening was the largest ever for a film released in the U.S. during December.

Plot

A genetically re-engineered measles virus called Krippin Virus or KV, originally created as a cancer vaccine by Dr. Alice Krippin (Emma Thompson), rapidly spreads and 90% of the people on the planet by the end of 2009 are killed, 9.8% are infected but survive, while the remaining 0.2% are immune when it mutates into a lethal strain that is transmissible through the air and blood. The infected survivors initially exhibit the early symptoms of rabies, but then degenerate into an animal state driven by hunger and blind rage. Military virologist Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the last healthy human survivor in New York City and possibly the world. Neville is watched by the "Infected" people, who react painfully to UV radiation, forcing them to be nocturnal. Avoiding sunlight, they hide in buildings during the day (in groups called "hives" by Neville), swarming out at night. Dogs and rats are also susceptible to the virus. By 2012, Neville has not seen another normal human being since the virus' outbreak three years earlier, and suspects that the Infected have succeeded in killing the remainder of the immune survivors. Outnumbered by the infected, struggling with the effects of interminable solitude, Neville is running out of time as he seeks a cure.

His isolation broken only by the companionship of his daughter's dog Samantha (Sam), Neville's life centers around a strict, daily routine of working out, researching a cure, foraging for food and supplies, and security, but he also has leisure time in which he plays golf and watches recorded news and entertainment broadcasts on TV. He is regularly haunted by flashbacks of his wife's and daughter's deaths while being evacuated during the chaotic, militarily enforced quarantine of Manhattan in 2009. He also waits each day for a response to his continuous radio broadcasts to any uninfected survivors. One day his research appears to find a promising treatment, so he captures and treats an infected woman, but without apparent success. Shortly after, he is ensnared by a trap and attacked by the Infected. He escapes, but is forced to put down Sam because she has been bitten by an infected dog and begins to transform into one of them. Despondent over the death of Sam, Neville suicidally attacks a group of Infected that night and is nearly killed. He is saved by a pair of survivors who have traveled from Maryland; they take him back to his fortified home on Washington Square North. Anna (Alice Braga) and young boy Ethan (Charlie Tahan), immune like Neville, survived the chaos aboard a Red Cross evacuation ship. Hearing Neville's broadcasts, they have come with plans to take him to a rumored survivors colony in Bethel, Vermont. Anna tells Neville that God sent her to bring him to the colony. Neville refuses to believe her, saying that there cannot be a God in a world with such suffering and mass death.

The Infected attack the house that night and overrun its defenses. Neville, Anna, and Ethan retreat into the basement laboratory, sealing themselves in with the Infected woman on whom Neville was experimenting. Discovering that the last treatment has successfully cured the woman, Neville realizes that he has to find a way to pass it on to other survivors before they are killed. He quickly draws a vial of blood from the patient and gives it to Anna. He pushes Anna and Ethan into an old coal chute and sacrifices himself with a hand grenade, killing the attacking Infected.

Anna and Ethan escape to Vermont and locate the fortified survivors colony. Anna gives the cure to the guards. In the voice-over, she states that Neville's cure enabled humanity to survive and rebuild, establishing his legend.

Production

Development

In 1994, Warner Bros. began developing the film project, having owned the rights to Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend since 1970. In June 1997, director Ridley Scott and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger entered talks with Warner Bros. for I Am Legend, based on a script by Mark Protosevich. Actors Tom Cruise and Michael Douglas were previously considered to star in the film. The following July, Scott and Schwarzenegger finalized negotiations with the studio. Production slated to begin the coming September, with Houston as a stand-in for the film's setting of Los Angeles. In December 1997, the project was called into question when the projected budget escalated to $108 million due to media and shareholder scrutiny of the studio in financing a big-budget film. Scott rewrote the script in an attempt to reduce the film's budget by $20 million, but in March 1998, the studio canceled the project due to continued budgetary concerns. In August 1998, director Rob Bowman was attached to I Am Legend, but he moved on to direct Reign of Fire.

In March 2002, Schwarzenegger became the producer of I Am Legend, commencing negotiations with Michael Bay to direct and Will Smith to star in the film. Bay and Smith were attracted to the project based on a redraft that would reduce its budget. However, the project was shelved due to Warner Bros. president Alan F. Horn's dislike of the script. In 2004, Akiva Goldsman was asked by head of production Jeff Robinov to produce the project. In September 2005, director Francis Lawrence signed on to helm the project, with production slated to begin in 2006. Guillermo del Toro was also approached to direct. Lawrence, whose film Constantine was produced by Goldsman, was fascinated by empty urban environments. He said, "Something’s always really excited me about that... to have experienced that much loss, to be without people or any kind of social interaction for that long."

Goldsman rewrote the screenplay to be closer to the second I Am Legend film adaptation, The Omega Man, of which he was a major fan. The rewrite was also done to distance the film from the numerous zombie films inspired by the novel. A forty-page scene-by-scene outline of the film was developed by May 2006. When delays occurred on Will Smith's film Hancock (2008), which was scheduled for 2007, it was proposed to switch the actor's films. This meant filming would have to begin in sixteen weeks: production was greenlit, using Goldsman's script and the outline. Elements from Protosevich's script were introduced, while the crew consulted with experts on infectious diseases and solitary confinement. Rewrites continued throughout filming, because of Smith's improvisational skills and Lawrence's preference to keep various scenes silent. The director had watched The Pianist with a low volume so as to not disturb his newborn son, and realized that silence could be very effective cinema.

Casting

Will Smith signed on to play Robert Neville in April 2006. He said he took on I Am Legend because he felt it could be like "Gladiator Forrest Gump — these are movies with wonderful, audience-pleasing elements but also uncompromised artistic value. always felt like it had those possibilities to me." The actor found Neville to be his toughest acting challenge since portraying Muhammad Ali in Ali (2001). He said that "when you're on your own, it is kind of hard to find conflict." The film's dark tone and exploration of whether Neville has gone insane during his isolation meant Smith had to restrain himself from falling into a humorous routine during takes. To prepare for his role, Smith visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Georgia. He also met with a person who had been in solitary confinement and a former prisoner of war. Smith compared Neville to Job, who lost his children, livelihood and health. Like the Book of Job, I Am Legend studies the questions, "Can he find a reason to continue? Can he find the hope or desire to excel and advance in life? Or does the death of everything around him create imminent death for himself?" He also cited an influence in Tom Hanks' performance in Cast Away (2000).

Abbey, a three-year-old German Shepherd, played Neville's dog Sam. Another dog was used for scenes where Neville plays fetch with his companion, as Abbey refused to perform these scenes. The rest of the supporting cast consists of Salli Richardson as Zoe, Robert's wife, and Alice Braga as a character named Anna. Willow Smith, Will Smith's daughter, makes her film debut as Marley, Neville's daughter. Emma Thompson has an uncredited role as Dr. Alice Krippin, who appears on television explaining her vaccine for cancer that mutates into the virus.

Filming

The Brooklyn Bridge served as a location in I Am Legend, at which there was a $5 million scene filmed, the most expensive scene to date in New York City.

Akiva Goldsman decided to move the story from Los Angeles to New York City to take advantage of locations that would more easily show emptiness. Goldsman explained, "L.A. looks empty at three o'clock in the afternoon, New York is never empty . . . it was a much more interesting way of showing the windswept emptiness of the world." Warner Brothers initially rejected this idea because of the logistics, but Francis Lawrence was determined to shoot on location, to give the film a natural feel that would not benefit from shooting on soundstages. Lawrence went to the city with a camcorder, and filmed areas filled with crowds. Then, a special effects test was conducted to remove all those people. The test had a powerful effect on studio executives. Michael Tadross convinced authorities to close busy areas such as the Grand Central Terminal viaduct, several blocks of Fifth Avenue and Washington Square Park.

Filming began on September 23 2006. The Marcy Avenue Armory in Williamsburg was used for the interior of Neville's home, while Greenwich Village was used for the exterior. Other locations including the Tribeca section of Lower Manhattan, the aircraft carrier Intrepid, the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx and St. Paul's Cathedral. Weeds were imported from Florida and were strewn across locations to make the city look like it had overgrown with them. The closure of major streets was controversial with New Yorkers. Will Smith said, "I don't think anyone's going to be able to do that in New York again any time soon. People were not happy. That's the most middle fingers I've ever gotten in my career."

A bridge scene was filmed for six consecutive nights in January on the Brooklyn Bridge to serve as a flashback scene in which New York's citizens evacuate the city. Shooting the scene consumed $5 million of the film's reported $150 million budget, which was the most expensive shot in the city to date. The scene, which had to meet requirements from fourteen government agencies, involved 250 crew members and 1,000 extras, including 160 National Guard members. Also present were several Humvees, three Stryker armored vehicles, a 110-foot cutter, a 41-foot utility boat, and two 25-foot Response Boat Small craft. Filming concluded on March 31 2007.

Reshoots were conducted around November 2007. Lawrence noted, "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."

Effects

A week into filming, Francis Lawrence felt the infected, who were being portrayed by actors wearing prosthetics, were not convincing. His decision to use computer-generated imagery meant post-production had to be extended and the budget increased. Lawrence explained, "They needed to have an abandon in their performance that you just can’t get out of people in the middle of the night when they’re barefoot. And their metabolisms are really spiked, so they’re constantly hyperventilating, which you can’t really get actors to do for a long time or they pass out." While the infected become vampires in the novel, the film depicts them as "dark seekers" (Anna's term for them) who consume living flesh, with a design inspired by the concept of their adrenal glands being open all the time. The actors remained on set to provide motion capture.

In addition, CGI was used for the lions and deer in the film, and to erase pedestrians in shots of New York. Workers visible in windows, spectators and moving cars in the distance were all removed. In his vision of an empty New York, Lawrence cited John Ford as his influence: "We didn't want to make an apocalyptic movie where the landscape felt apocalyptic. A lot of the movie takes place on a beautiful day. There's something magical about the empty city as opposed to dark and scary."

Release

I Am Legend was originally slated for a November 21 2007 release in the United States and Canada, but was delayed to December 14 2007. The film opened on December 26 2007 in the United Kingdom, having been originally scheduled for January 4 2008.

In December 2007, China banned the release of American films in the country, which is believed to have delayed the release of I Am Legend. Will Smith spoke to the chairman of China Film Group about securing a release date, later explaining, "We struggled very, very hard to try to get it to work out, but there are only a certain amount of foreign films that are allowed in."

Marketing

A tie-in comic from DC Comics and Vertigo Comics will be released with I Am Legend. The project draws upon collaboration from Bill Sienkiewicz, screenwriter Mark Protosevich, and author Orson Scott Card. The son of the original book's author, Richard Christian Matheson, also collaborated on the project. The project will advance from the comic to an online format in which animated featurettes (created by the team from Broken Saints) will be shown on the official website. The comic is due out in November.

In October 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures in conjunction with the Electric Sheep Company launched the online multiplayer game I Am Legend: Survival in the virtual world Second Life. The game is the largest launched in the virtual world in support of a film release, permitting people to play against each other as the infected or the uninfected across a replicated 60 acres of New York City. The studio also hired the ad agency Crew Creative to develop a website that would be specifically viewable on Apple's iPhone.

Box office

I Am Legend grossed $77,211,321 on its opening week. As of December 26 2007, the film had grossed $150,765,000 in the U.S. and $19,785,097 internationally, for a total $170,550,097 worldwide. This set a record for highest grossing opening for a film for the month of December.

Critical reception

As of December 22, 2007, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 64% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 146 reviews, a percentage considered "Fresh" by the site. Metacritic gave the film an average score of 66 out of 100, based on 35 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.

A. O. Scott felt Will Smith gave a "graceful and effortless performance", and also noted the "third-act collapse". He felt the movie "does ponder some pretty deep questions about the collapse and persistence of human civilization". Dana Stevens of Slate felt the movie loses its way around the hour mark, as "the Infected just aren't that scary." NPR critic Bob Mondello noted the film's subtext concerning global terrorism and that this aspect made the film fit in perfectly with other, more direct cinematic explorations of the subject. Richard Roeper gave the film a positive review on the television program At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, commending Will Smith as being in "prime form", also saying there are "some amazing sequences" and that there was "a pretty heavy screenplay for an action film."

The final 30 minutes of the movie seem to be missing something. Ryan is wrong.

References

  1. ^ Joseph Steuer (2007-04-24). "Government agencies cover filmmakers in red tape". Reuters. Retrieved 2007-09-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. Todd McCarthy (2007-12-07). "I Am Legend review". Variety. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
  3. ^ Lewis Beale (2007-01-14). "A variation on vampire lore that won't die". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-11-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Anita M. Busch (1997-06-05). "Scott, Arnold: 'Legend'-ary duo?". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. Anita M. Busch (1997-07-02). "Scott is stuff of 'Legend'". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. Louis B. Parks (1997-08-22). "Arnold's 'Legend' coming here". Houston Chronicle. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. Michael Fleming (1997-12-04). "'Legend' may not live on; Leighton lightens up". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. Chris Petrikin (1998-04-13). "Fox reins in 'Riders'". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. "Schwarzenegger's 'Legend' is in peril". Chicago Tribune. 1998-03-16. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. Benedict Carver (1998-08-18). "Col taps duo for 'Space'". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. Charles Lyons (2000-07-17). "Bowman will reign over Spyglass' 'Fire'". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. Michael Fleming (2002-03-17). "'Legend' rekindled by Arnold". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. Vanessa Juarez (2006-05-19). "Most Delayed Movie Ever?". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-05-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ David M. Halbfinger (2007-11-04). "The City That Never Sleeps, Comatose". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-11-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. Michael Fleming (2005-09-13). "Helmer takes on 'Legend' for WB". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Chris Lee (2007-11-04). "Will Smith: a one-man show". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-11-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Jeff Jensen (2007-08-16). "Will Smith: Making a 'Legend'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-11-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ Ian Nathan (January 2008). "Last Man Standing". Empire. pp. 109–114.
  19. Michael Fleming (2006-04-25). "'Legend' reborn again at Warners". Variety. Retrieved 2006-08-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Ian Nathan (October 2007). "I Am Legend". Empire. pp. 78–81.
  21. ^ Min Lee (2007-12-07). "Will Smith says new film 'I Am Legend' hasn't secured China release". Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-12-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. Adam Markowitz (2007-11-02). "The Dog". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-11-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Wilson Morales (2006-09-19). "I Am Legend casting news". Blackfilm.com. Retrieved 2006-09-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. Paul Davidson (2006-10-04). "Another Smith Joins Legend". IGN. Retrieved 2006-10-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ Dana Stevens (2007-12-14). "I Am Legend, reviewed". Slate. Retrieved 2007-12-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ Garth Franklin (2006-08-16). ""I Am Legend" Taking Time To Film". Dark Horizons. Retrieved 2006-08-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  27. Joseph Steuer (2007-04-24). "A 'Legend' in the making". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2007-04-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. Addiego, Walter (2007-12-14). "Review: I, human - Will Smith plays last man standing in 'I Am Legend'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-12-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. "Francis Lawrence on I Am Legend Re-shoots". ShockTillYouDrop.com. 2007-12-03. Retrieved 2007-12-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  30. "Shooting Dates for I Am Legend". ComingSoon.net. 2006-08-16. Retrieved 2007-04-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. "I Am Legend". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 2007-04-26.
  32. "UK Film release schedule". Film Distributors' Association. Retrieved 2007-12-11.
  33. Patrick Frater (2007-12-05). "China sets 3 month ban on U.S. films". Variety. Retrieved 2007-12-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. Erik Amaya (2007-07-28). "CCI: This Book is Legend". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2007-07-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  35. Warner Bros. Pictures (2007-10-12). "I Am Legend: Survival Launched in Second Life". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 2007-10-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  36. Carly Mayberry (2007-10-11). "Site a 'Legend' for iPhone". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2007-11-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  37. "I Am Legend at Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  38. "'I Am Legend' sets big box-office record". MSNBC. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
  39. "I Am Legend - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  40. "I Am Legend (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  41. A. O. Scott (2007-12-14). "Man About Town, and Very Alone". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17260869
  43. "I Am Legend review". Retrieved 2007-12-25.

External links

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Richard Matheson's I Am Legend
Film adaptations
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