“I Am Legend” author remembers individuals strolling out of theaters in droves throughout canine dying scene

Author Akiva Goldsman has had a profession filled with highs, together with profitable the Oscar for his script for 2002's A Lovely Thoughts and the success of 2005's Cinderella Man — however I Am Legend was much less nicely obtained. One a part of it was actually loathed.

He remembers individuals strolling out of theaters throughout a scene of the 2007 movie by which one of many primary characters, who occurs to be a canine, is killed.

"I Am Legend by no means examined nicely as a result of we killed Sam. Folks stroll out when that canine dies," Goldsman instructed The Hollywood Reporter. "And I get it. I really like canines. By no means extra walkouts in something I've performed than when that canine died."

The 2007 Will Smith film is in regards to the sole survivor of a human plague. Everybody else is both lifeless or contaminated with a virus that's turned them into monsters.

Smith's character, Robert Neville, spends a lot of the Francis Lawrence-directed movie with solely his canine, a German Shepherd named Sam. However after his beloved associate is attacked, Robert holds Sam in his arms and even sings to her, earlier than noticing that she's now sick too. Her eyes have turn into wild and her enamel sharper. When she instantly begins to growl and chunk at him violently, the digicam closes in on Robert's face as he strangles the canine.

The viewers hears the canine struggling and sees a heartbroken Smith trying away from what he's doing. He tears up on the finish of the scene, and he nonetheless can't look as he strikes the canine apart.

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Commenters on YouTube video of the scene stated it "ranks proper up there with killing Previous Yeller" and that it nonetheless had them crying in 2024.

Smith instructed THR {that a} assembly the film's crew had with the top of the studio behind it, Warner Bros., didn’t go nicely both.

"We stroll in and — virtually like from a sitcom — Alan Horn has 4 large photos of probably the most beautiful German Shepherds behind his desk," Smith recalled. "He loves canines. And he’s telling us the story that he simply misplaced certainly one of his German Shepherds. We’re like, 'Oh no. Oh no.' Akiva says, 'Alan, Will has one thing he needs to pitch you.'"

After the studio — predictably — took situation with the plan to kill Sam off, Smith famous that Goldsman was the one who discovered an answer. He steered a "stage play."

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"And what occurs within the shot is you simply pan off, and the entire scene is simply performed on my face," Smith stated. "You hear the sound of the paws, the nails scratching on the ground till they decelerate and cease. It's tremendous painful, however the viewers doesn't must undergo it."

And that's what they did.

Even with that brutal scene, I Am Legend was a hit on the field workplace, in line with Field Workplace Mojo, incomes $585.4 million globally.

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