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The Hours is a 2002 British-American
directed by , and starring , , , and . The screenplay by
is based on 's 1999 -winning .
The plot focuses on three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by the novel
by . These are Clarissa Vaughan (Streep), a New Yorker preparing an award party for her -stricken long-time friend and poet, Richard (Harris) in 2001; Laura Brown (Moore), a pregnant 1950s California housewife with a young boy and and Virginia Woolf (Kidman) herself in 1920s England, who is struggling with depression and mental illness while trying to write her novel.
The film was released in Los Angeles and New York City on
2002, and was given a
in the United States and Canada two days later on December 27, 2002. It did not receive a
in North America until January 2003, and was then released in British cinemas on
that year. Critical reaction to the film was mostly positive, with nine
nominations for The Hours including , and a win for
With the exception of the opening and final scenes, which depict the 1941
by drowning of
in the , the action takes place within the span of a single day in three different years and alternates between them throughout the film. In 1923, Virginia has begun writing the book
in her home in the town of
outside . In 1951, troubled
housewife Laura Brown escapes from her conventional life by reading Mrs Dalloway. In 2001,
Clarissa Vaughan is the embodiment of the novel's title character, as she spends the day preparing for a party she is hosting in honor of her former lover and friend Richard, a poet and author living with
who is to receive a major literary award. Richard tells Clarissa he has stayed alive for her sake, and the award is meaningless because he didn't get it sooner, until he was on the brink of death. She tells him she believes he would have won the award regardless of his illness. Richard often refers to Clarissa as "Mrs. Dalloway" - her namesake - because she distracts herself from her own life the way the Woolf character does.
Virginia, who has experienced several
and suffers from , feels trapped in her home. She is intimidated by servants and constantly under the eye of her husband, , who has begun a publishing business, , at home to stay close to her. Virginia both welcomes and dreads an afternoon visit from her sister
and her children. After their departure, Virginia flees to the railway station, where she is awaiting a train to central London, when Leonard arrives to bring her home. He tells her how he lives in constant fear that she will take her own life. She says she fears it also but argues that if she is to live, she has the right to decide how and where.
Pregnant with her second child, Laura spends her days in her
with her young son, Richie. She married her husband, Dan, soon after . On the surface they are living the , but she is nonetheless deeply unhappy. She and Richie make a cake for Dan's birthday, but it is a disaster. Her neighbor Kitty drops in to ask her if she can feed her dog while she's in the hospital for a procedure. Kitty pretends to be upbeat, but Laura senses her fear and boldly ki Kitty laughs it off as if it didn't happen. Laura and Richie successfully make another cake and clean up, and then she takes Richie to stay with Mrs. Latch. Richie runs after his mother as she leaves, fearing that she will never come back. Laura checks into a hotel, where she intends to commit suicide. Laura removes several bottles of pills and Mrs. Dalloway from her purse and begins to read it. She drifts off to sleep and dreams the hotel room is flooded. She awakens with a change of heart and caresses her belly. She picks up Richie, and they return home to celebrate Dan's birthday.
Clarissa appears equally worried about Richard's depression and the party she is planning for him. Although Clarissa herself is bisexual and has been living with Sally Lester for 10 years, she and Richard were lovers during their college days. She meets with Richard's ex-lover Louis Waters, who has returned for the festivities. Clarissa's daughter, Julia, comes home to help her prepare. Richard has taken a combination of
and tells Clarissa she is the most beautiful thing he ever had in life, before he commits suicide in front of her. Later that night, Laura, who is Richard's mother, arrives at Clarissa's apartment. It is clear that Laura's abandonment of her family was deeply traumatic for Richard, but Laura reveals it was a better decision for her to leave the family after the birth of her daughter rather than commit suicide. She has led an independent, happier life as a librarian in Canada. She does not apologize for the hurt she caused to her family (Dan and their daughter are also both dead) and suggests that it's not possible to feel regret for something over which she had no choice. She acknowledges that no one will forgive her, but she offers an explanation: "It [her life] was death. I chose life." When Julia visits Laura in her bedroom, she treats her with kindness and sensitivity that Laura does not expect to receive.
The film ends with a line from Virginia's suicide note (in voice-over) in which she thanks Leonard for loving her: "Always the years between us. Always the years. Always the love. Always the hours."
as Lottie Hope
as Nelly Boxall
as Laura Brown
as Dan Brown
as Richie Brown
as Mrs. Latch
as Clarissa Vaughan
as Richard "Richie" Brown
as Sally Lester
as Julia Vaughan
as Louis Waters
as Older Laura Brown
The Hours has an 81% "fresh" rating on the film review aggregator site , with 150 of 186 counted reviews giving it a positive review and an average rating of 7.4 out of 10 — with the consensus that "the movie may be a downer, but it packs an emotional wallop. Some fine acting on display here." On , the film holds an average score of 81 out of 100, based on 39 reviews. The four main cast members were praised, especially Nicole Kidman who won numerous of awards for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf including the .
Stephen Holden of
called the film "deeply moving" and "an amazingly faithful screen adaptation" and added, "Although suicide eventually tempts three of the film's characters, The Hours is not an unduly morbid film. Clear eyed and austerely balanced would be a more accurate description, along with magnificently written and acted. Mr. Glass's surging minimalist score, with its air of cosmic abstraction, serves as ideal connective tissue for a film that breaks down temporal barriers."
observed, "Director Stephen Daldry employs the wonderful things cinema can do in order to realize aspects of The Hours that Cunningham could only hint at or approximate on the page. The result is something rare, especially considering how fine the novel is, a film that's fuller and deeper than the book ... It's marvelous to watch the ways in which [David Hare] consistently dramatizes the original material without compromising its integrity or distorting its intent ... Cunningham's [novel] touched on notes of longing, middle-aged angst and the sense of being a small consciousness in the midst of a grand mystery. But Daldry and Hare's [film] sounds those notes and sends audiences out reverberating with them, exalted."
criticized its simplistic characterization, saying, "Watching The Hours, one finds oneself focusing excessively on the unfortunate prosthetic nose Kidman affects in order to look more like the novelist. And wondering why the screenwriter, David Hare, and the director, Stephen Daldry, turn Woolf, a woman of incisive mind, into a hapless ditherer." He also criticized its overt politicization: "But this movie is in love with female victimization. Moore's Laura is trapped in the suburban flatlands of the '50s, while Streep's Clarissa is moored in a hopeless love for Laura's homosexual son (Ed Harris, in a truly ugly performance), an AIDS sufferer whose relentless anger is directly traceable to Mom's long-ago desertion of him. Somehow, despite the complexity of the film's structure, this all seems too simple-minded. Or should we perhaps say agenda driven? The same criticisms might apply to the fact that both these fictional characters (and, it is hinted, Woolf herself) find what consolation they can in a rather dispassionate lesbianism. This ultimately proves insufficient to lend meaning to their lives or profundity to a grim and uninvolved film, for which Philip Glass unwittingly provides the perfect score — tuneless, oppressive, droning, painfully self-important."
awarded the film, which he thought "sometimes stumbles on literary pretensions," three out of four stars. He praised the performances, commenting, "Kidman's acting is superlative, full of passion and feeling ... Moore is wrenching in her scenes with Laura's son (Jack Rovello, an exceptional child actor). And Streep is a miracle worker, building a character in the space between words and worlds. These three unimprovable actresses make The Hours a thing of beauty."
Steve Persall of the
said it "is the most finely crafted film of the past year that I never want to sit through again. The performances are flawless, the screenplay is intelligently crafted, and the overall mood is relentlessly bleak. It is a film to be admired, not embraced, and certainly not to be enjoyed for any reason other than its expertise ... Glacially paced and somberly presented, The Hours demands that viewers be as impressed with the production as the filmmakers are with themselves ... Whatever the reason - too gloomy, too slow, too slanted - [it] is too highbrow and admirably dull for most moviegoers. It's the kind of film that makes critics feel smarter by recommending it, even at the risk of damaging credibility with mainstream audiences who automatically think any movie starring Kidman, Streep and Moore is worth viewing. The Hours will feel like days for them."
Phillip French of
called it "a moving, somewhat depressing film that demands and rewards attention." He thought "the performances are remarkable" but found the Philip Glass score to be "relentless" and "over-amplified."
Peter Bradshaw of
rated the film three out of five stars and commented, "It is a daring act of extrapolation, and a real departure from most movie-making, which can handle only one universe at a time . . . The performances that Daldry elicits . . . are all strong: tightly managed, smoothly and dashingly juxtaposed under a plangent score. I have to confess I am
about Nicole Kidman, who as Woolf murmurs her lines through an absurd prosthetic nose. It's almost a Hollywood Disability. You've heard of
and . This is Nicole and her Big Fake Schnoz. It doesn't look anything like the real Virginia's sharp, fastidious features . . . Julianne Moore gives [a] superbly controlled, humane performance . . . Streep's performance is probably the most fully realised of the three: a return to the kind of mature and demanding role on which she had a freehold in yesterday's Hollywood . . . Part of the bracing experimental impact of the film was the absence of narrative connection between the three women. Supplying one in the final reel undermines its formal daring, but certainly packs an emotional punch. It makes for an elegant and poignant chamber music of the soul."
The Hours opened in
2002 and went into limited release in the United States and
two days later. It grossed $1,070,856 on eleven screens in its first two weeks of release. On January 10, 2003, it expanded to 45 screens, and the following week it expanded to 402. On February 14 it went into wide release, playing in 1,003 theaters in the US and Canada. With an estimated budget of $25 million, the film eventually earned $41,675,994 in the US and Canada and $67,170,078 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $108,846,072. It was the 56th highest grossing film of 2002.
Main article:
The film's score by
and was nominated for the
and the . The
was nominated for the .
Main article:
. . January 10, .
. Rotten Tomatoes.
. Metacritic.
Holden, Stephen (). . .[]
Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic (). . .
RICHARD SCHICKEL Monday, Dec. 23, -12-23). . .
Phillip French (). . London: Guardian.
Peter Bradshaw (). . London: Guardian.
. Box Office Mojo. .
London Academy of Media, Film & TV,
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Capitalization.)
The story opens in [[2012]], and a series of [[flashback]]s and recorded news programs reveal that three years earlier a genetically re-engineered [[measles]] [[virus]], originally created as a cure for [[cancer]], mutated into a lethal strain, which rapidly infected humans and some animal species. By the end of the first year, [[omnicide|more than 90% of the planet's human population died]]; over 9% were [[infection|infected]], but did not die. These survivors degenerated into a primal, aggressive state and began to react painfully to [[UV radiation]], forcing them to hide in buildings and other dark places during the day. Less than 1% were completely immune to the virus, and were hunted and killed by the infected or committed [[suicide]] due to isolation. Three years after the outbreak, Robert Neville believes he is the last healthy human in the world.
The story opens in [[2012]], and a series of [[flashback]]s and recorded news programs reveal that three years earlier a genetically re-engineered [[measles]] [[virus]], originally created as a cure for [[cancer]], mutated into a lethal strain, which rapidly infected humans and some animal species. By the end of the first year, [[omnicide|more than 90% of the planet's human population died]]; over 9% were [[infection|infected]], but did not die. These survivors degenerated into a primal, aggressive state and began to react painfully to [[UV radiation]], forcing them to hide in buildings and other dark places during the day. Less than 1% were completely immune to the virus, and were hunted and killed by the infected or committed [[suicide]] due to isolation. Three years after the outbreak, Robert Neville believes he is the last healthy human in the world.
Neville's daily routine includes experimentation to find a cure for the virus and trips to hunt for food and supplies through a [[Manhattan]] devoid of humanity. He waits each day for a response to his continuous, automated radio broadcasts, which instruct any uninfected survivors to meet him at midday at the [[South Street Seaport]]. Flashbacks reveal that his wife and daughter appear to have died in a helicopter accident during the chaotic evacuation of Manhattan, prior to the military-enforced [[quarantine]] of the island back in 2009. Neville's isolation is broken only by the companionship of his dog Samantha ("Sam"), interaction with [[mannequins]] he has set up as patrons of a video store, and recordings of old news and entertainment broadcasts.
Neville's daily routine includes jacking off to gay porn and experimentation to find a cure for the virus and trips to hunt for food and supplies through a [[Manhattan]] devoid of humanity. He waits each day for a response to his continuous, automated radio broadcasts, which instruct any uninfected survivors to meet him at midday at the [[South Street Seaport]]. Flashbacks reveal that his wife and daughter appear to have died in a helicopter accident during the chaotic evacuation of Manhattan, prior to the military-enforced [[quarantine]] of the island back in 2009. Neville's isolation is broken only by the companionship of his dog Samantha ("Sam"), interaction with [[mannequins]] he has set up as patrons of a video store, and recordings of old news and entertainment broadcasts.
Neville seems to find a promising treatment derived from his own blood, so he sets a [[Animal trapping#Snares|snare trap]] and captures an infected woman while an infected male watches from the shadows. Back in his laboratory, located in the basement of his heavily-fortified [[Washington Square Park, New York|Washington Square Park]] home, Neville treats the infected woman without success. Shortly after, he is ensnared in a trap similar to the one he used to capture the woman. By the time Neville escapes, it is dark and he is attacked by infected dogs, one of which bites Sam (although Sam is unaffected by the airborne strain of the virus, she is still affected by the contact strain. It is not shown if this is true for all dogs, though it has been hinted that most non-humans are immune to the airborn virus). Neville takes Sam home and injects her with a strand of his serum, but when she shows signs of infection and tries to attack him Neville is forced to strangle her. The next night he goes out and recklessly attacks a group of infected. He is nearly killed, but is rescued by a pair of immune survivors, Anna ([[Alice Braga]]) and a young boy named Ethan (Charlie Tahan), who have traveled from [[Maryland]] after hearing one of his broadcasts. They take the injured Neville back to his home where Anna explains that they survived the outbreak aboard a [[Red Cross]] evacuation ship from [[S?o Paulo]] and are making their way to a rumored survivors' camp in [[Bethel, Vermont]].
Neville seems to find a promising treatment derived from his own blood, so he sets a [[Animal trapping#Snares|snare trap]] and captures an infected woman while an infected male watches from the shadows. Back in his laboratory, located in the basement of his heavily-fortified [[Washington Square Park, New York|Washington Square Park]] home, Neville treats the infected woman without success. Shortly after, he is ensnared in a trap similar to the one he used to capture the woman. By the time Neville escapes, it is dark and he is attacked by infected dogs, one of which bites Sam (although Sam is unaffected by the airborne strain of the virus, she is still affected by the contact strain. It is not shown if this is true for all dogs, though it has been hinted that most non-humans are immune to the airborn virus). Neville takes Sam home and injects her with a strand of his serum, but when she shows signs of infection and tries to attack him Neville is forced to strangle her. The next night he goes out and recklessly attacks a group of infected. He is nearly killed, but is rescued by a pair of immune survivors, Anna ([[Alice Braga]]) and a young boy named Ethan (Charlie Tahan), who have traveled from [[Maryland]] after hearing one of his broadcasts. They take the injured Neville back to his home where Anna explains that they survived the outbreak aboard a [[Red Cross]] evacuation ship from [[S?o Paulo]] and are making their way to a rumored survivors' camp in [[Bethel, Vermont]].
Revision as of 14:27, 20 March 2008
I Am Legend is a
directed by
and starring . It is the third feature film adaptation of
1954 , following 1964's
and 1971's . Smith plays
Robert Neville, who thinks he may be Earth's only surviving human not affected by a vicious man-made virus. He works to create a cure while living in a city inhabited by mutant victims of the airborne virus.
began developing I Am Legend in 1994, and various actors and directors were attached to the project, though production was delayed due to budgetary concerns related to the script. Production began in 2006 in , filming mainly on location in the city, including a $5 million scene at the , 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
as part of its marketing campaign. I Am Legend was released on
in the . It opened to the largest ever
for a non-Christmas film released in the U.S. during December. The film's success "cemented [Smith's] standing as the number one box office draw in Hollywood."
After the outbreak of a lethal virus in ,
virologist
Robert Neville () is left as the last healthy human in
and possibly the entire world.
The story opens in , and a series of
and recorded news programs reveal that three years earlier a genetically re-engineered
, originally created as a cure for , mutated into a lethal strain, which rapidly infected humans and some animal species. By the end of the first year, ; over 9% were , but did not die. These survivors degenerated into a primal, aggressive state and began to react painfully to , forcing them to hide in buildings and other dark places during the day. Less than 1% were completely immune to the virus, and were hunted and killed by the infected or committed
due to isolation. Three years after the outbreak, Robert Neville believes he is the last healthy human in the world.
Neville's daily routine includes jacking off to gay porn and experimentation to find a cure for the virus and trips to hunt for food and supplies through a
devoid of humanity. He waits each day for a response to his continuous, automated radio broadcasts, which instruct any uninfected survivors to meet him at midday at the . Flashbacks reveal that his wife and daughter appear to have died in a helicopter accident during the chaotic evacuation of Manhattan, prior to the military-enforced
of the island back in 2009. Neville's isolation is broken only by the companionship of his dog Samantha ("Sam"), interaction with
he has set up as patrons of a video store, and recordings of old news and entertainment broadcasts.
Neville seems to find a promising treatment derived from his own blood, so he sets a
and captures an infected woman while an infected male watches from the shadows. Back in his laboratory, located in the basement of his heavily-fortified
home, Neville treats the infected woman without success. Shortly after, he is ensnared in a trap similar to the one he used to capture the woman. By the time Neville escapes, it is dark and he is attacked by infected dogs, one of which bites Sam (although Sam is unaffected by the airborne strain of the virus, she is still affected by the contact strain. It is not shown if this is true for all dogs, though it has been hinted that most non-humans are immune to the airborn virus). Neville takes Sam home and injects her with a strand of his serum, but when she shows signs of infection and tries to attack him Neville is forced to strangle her. The next night he goes out and recklessly attacks a group of infected. He is nearly killed, but is rescued by a pair of immune survivors, Anna () and a young boy named Ethan (Charlie Tahan), who have traveled from
after hearing one of his broadcasts. They take the injured Neville back to his home where Anna explains that they survived the outbreak aboard a
evacuation ship from
and are making their way to a rumored survivors' camp in .
The next night a group of infected — who have followed Anna and Neville and are led by the same male that attempted to trap Neville — attack the house, overrunning its defenses. Neville, Anna, and Ethan retreat into the basement laboratory, sealing themselves in with the woman Neville has been treating. Discovering that the last treatment has been successful, Neville draws a vial of the woman's blood and gives it to Anna. He pushes Anna and Ethan into an old coal chute, and then
himself to save their lives, using a
to kill himself and the attacking infected.
Anna and Ethan escape to Vermont, and locate the survivors' colony where Anna hands over the cure. In the closing , she states that Neville's cure enabled humanity to survive and rebuild, establishing his "legend." The movie ends with Anna quoting : "Light up the darkness".
The tone of the ending of the film was altered dramatically before the film's release, with the majority of the changes made to the standoff between Neville and the infected in his laboratory. Visual effects supervisor Janek Sirrs recounts the original ending starting with the standoff: "At that point, Neville's—and the audience's—assumptions about the nature of these creatures are shown to be incorrect. We see that they have actually retained some of their humanity. There is a very important moment between the alpha male and Neville." David Schaub stated, "Then, when Neville finally turns the alpha female over to the alpha male, there is this little love moment between the two of them." The infected then retrieve the captured female and spare Neville's life. The original final shot follows Neville, Anna, and Ethan as they cross the remnants of the
in hopes of finding other survivors.
began developing the film project, having owned the rights to 's 1954 novel
since 1970. Actors
had been considered to star in the film, using a script by Mark Protosevich however, by June 1997 the studio's preference was for actor , and in July, Scott and Schwarzenegger finalized negotiations, with production slated to begin the coming September, using
as a stand-in for the film's setting of . 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
was attached to I Am Legend, but he moved on to direct .
In March 2002, Schwarzenegger became the producer of I Am Legend, commencing negotiations with
to direct and
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 's dislike of the script. In 2004,
was asked by head of production Jeff Robinov to produce the project. In September 2005, director
signed on to helm the project, with production slated to begin in 2006.
was also approached to direct. Lawrence, whose film
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 took on the project as he admired the second I Am Legend film adaptation, . A rewrite was done to distance the project from the other
films inspired by the novel, particularly . A forty-page scene-by-scene outline of the film was developed by May 2006. When delays occurred on Will Smith's film
(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 . Rewrites continued throughout filming, because of Smith's improvisational skills and Lawrence's preference to keep various scenes silent. The director had watched
with a low volume so as to not disturb his newborn son, and realized that silence could be very effective cinema.
signed on to play Robert Neville in April 2006. He said he took on I Am Legend because he felt it could be like " [or]
— these are movies with wonderful, audience-pleasing elements but also uncompromised artistic value. [This] always felt like it had those possibilities to me." The actor found Neville to be his toughest acting challenge since portraying
(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
in . He also met with a person who had been in
and a former . Smith compared Neville to , who lost his children, livelihood and health. Like the , 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 ' performance in
Abbey, a three-year-old , played Neville's dog Sam. Another dog was used for scenes where Neville plays
with his companion, as Abbey refused to perform these scenes. The rest of the supporting cast consists of
as Zoe, Robert's wife, and
as a survivor named Anna. Willow Smith, Will Smith's daughter, makes her film debut as Marley, Neville's daughter.
has an uncredited role as Dr. Alice Krippin, who appears on television explaining her vaccine for cancer that mutates into the virus.
served as a location in I Am Legend, at which there was a $5 million scene filmed, the most expensive scene to date in .
decided to move the story from Los Angeles to
to take advantage of locations that would more easily show emptiness. Goldsman explained, " looks empty at three o'clock in the afternoon, [but] New York is never empty . . . it was a much more interesting way of showing the windswept emptiness of the world." Warner Bros. 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 , 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
, several blocks of
and . The film was shot primarily in 35mm , with flashback scenes shot in .[]
Filming began on
. The Marcy Avenue Armory in Williamsburg was used for the interior of Neville's home, while
was used for the exterior. Other locations include the Tribeca section of Lower Manhattan, the aircraft carrier , the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Weeds were imported from
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
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 , three
armored vehicles, a 110-foot , a 41-foot , and two 25-foot Response Boat Small craft, as well as other vehicles including taxis, police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances. Filming concluded on
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."
A week into filming, Francis Lawrence felt the infected, who were being portrayed by actors wearing prosthetics, were not convincing. His decision to use
(CGI) 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 . And their metabolisms are really spiked, so they’re constantly , which you can’t really get actors to do for a long time or they pass out." While the infected become
in the novel, the film script avoids suc even though the character Anna calls them "dark seekers", and they consume living flesh, their design is inspired more by the concept of their
being open all the time than by conventional vampire imagery. The actors remained on set to provide . "The film's producers and sound people wanted the creatures in the movie to sound somewhat human, but not the standard," so , former lead singer of
, was engaged to provide all of the infecteds' screams and howls.
In addition, CGI was used for the
in the film, and to
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
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."
Keen-eyed viewers have spotted billboards advertising a number of imaginary movies based on
properties in the background of some shots.
I Am Legend was originally slated for a
release in the
and , but was delayed to
. The film opened on
in the , and the
having been originally scheduled for
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."
A tie-in comic from
has been created. The project draws upon collaboration from , screenwriter Mark Protosevich, and author . 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 ) will be shown on the official website.
In October 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures in conjunction with the Electric Sheep Company launched the online multiplayer game I Am Legend: Survival in the
. 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 . The studio also hired the ad agency Crew Creative to develop a website that would be specifically viewable on 's .
I Am Legend grossed $77,211,321 on its opening weekend in 3,606 theaters, averaging $21,412 per venue, and placing it at the top of the box office. This set a record for highest grossing opening for a film for the month of December. As of Sunday
, the film has grossed $256,015,411 in North America and $583,115,411 worldwide.
The film was released on DVD on
in two editions: a one-disc release, including the movie with four animated comics ("Death As a Gift", "Isolation", "Sacrificing the Few for the Many", and "Shelter"), and other DVD-ROM a two-disc special edition that includes all these extras, plus an alternative theatrical version of the movie with an . On the high-definition end, the movie has been released on the
format and
format along with the DVD release, although the HD-DVD version will be released on April 8, 2008. Both HD releases include all the features available in the two-disc DVD edition.
Critics were generally favorable towards the film. As of
, review aggregate website
reported that 69% of critics gave the film positive write-ups, based on 181 reviews. At the similar website , which assigns a rating out of 100 to each review, the film has received an
score of 65, based on 37 reviews.
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
felt the movie loses its way around the hour mark, as "the Infected just aren't that scary."
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.
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." Much of the negative criticism has concerned the use of
effects, which many critics have labeled as excessive and unrealistic, as well as an unsatisfactory third act.
published an article on ,
addressing some of the scientific issues raised by the film:
the rate of deterioration of urban structures, , and survival of
Neville's power supplies
the plausibility of a
spreading out of control as depicted in the film
the mechanics of the Brooklyn Bridge's destruction
The magazine solicited reactions from author , virologist W. Ian Lipkin, , and Michel Bruneau, , comparing their predictions with the film's depictions. The article raised the most questions regarding the virus' mutation and the medical results, and pointed out that a
like the Brooklyn Bridge would likely completely collapse rather than losing only its middle span. Neville's method of producing power using gasoline-powered generators seemed the most credible: "This part of the tale is possible, if not entirely likely", Popular Mechanics editor Roy Berendsohn says.
I Am Legend earned four nominations for the , and was also nominated for Outstanding Performance by a
Ensemble at the , Outstanding Film and Actor at the , and Best Sound at the .
Todd McCarthy (). . .
Gitesh Pandya (). . .
Duncan, Jody. "Urban Legend".
(in Portuguese). Omelete. . We have a few scenes that won't be in the first release, but in the second. And we'll have an alternate ending already in the first DVD. It's much different. The other ending is more about an idea, not as satisfactory to the big audience. It's more philosophical while this is more thrilling. But the other is more interesting... it was created by me and Akiva[Goldsman].
Lewis Beale (). . .
Anita M. Busch (). . .
Anita M. Busch (). . .
Louis B. Parks (). "Arnold's 'Legend' coming here". .
Michael Fleming (). . .
Chris Petrikin (). . .
"Schwarzenegger's 'Legend' is in peril". . .
Benedict Carver (). . .
Charles Lyons (). . .
Michael Fleming (). . .
Vanessa Juarez (). . .
Michael Fleming (). . .
Jeff Jensen (). . .
Ian Nathan (January 2008). "Last Man Standing". . pp. 109–114.
Michael Fleming (). . .
Ian Nathan (October 2007). "I Am Legend". . pp. 78–81.
Min Lee (). . .
Adam Markowitz (). . .
Wilson Morales (). . .
Paul Davidson (). . .
Dana Stevens (). . .
Garth Franklin (). . Dark Horizons.
Joseph Steuer (). . .
Addiego, Walter (). . .
Joseph Steuer (). . .
Harris, Chris (). . MTV Networks.
. ComingSoon.net. .
. ComingSoon.net.
. Film Distributors' Association.
Patrick Frater (). . .
Erik Amaya (). . .
Warner Bros. Pictures (). . ComingSoon.net.
Carly Mayberry (). . .
Charles Lyons. .
Charles Lyons. .
Maher, Kevin (). . .
Bloom, Bob (). . .
McCarthy, Erin (), ,
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