I am Legend

It seems to be all the rage to find fodder for movies within books these days, and 2007 featured a good number of book-to-film adaptations. Aside from the beloved Harry Potter movie, this year's projects were met with varied success. The Golden Compass, based on the first of Philip Pullman's series His Dark Materials was not exactly praised by either those who read the book or those who had not. I Am Legend, though popular at the box office, managed to irritate some fans of Richard Matheson's 1954 sci-fi novel in its transition to film.

There were some success stories, as well. Bridge to Terabithia, for example, will never be as great on screen as it is in one's imagination, but I was pleased with what they did with the movie version. And, of course, I believe Atonement is a fine example of how to create an excellent film that can stand on its own as a piece of art while still honoring the original text.

What do you think about this year's adaptations? Which ones worked the best, and which ones probably should have just stayed on the bookshelf?

• Jay-Z will be stepping down as the president of Def Jam Records at the end of the year. Seeing how well his "retirements" from rap went, we'll see how long he can handle not being in charge. — Reuters
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets took the top spot at the box office over the holiday weekend, followed by I Am Legend. Seems like moviegoers were in the mood for big blockbusters! — BuzzSugar
• Carson Daly says that he decided to return to his late-night talk show earlier this month, despite the ongoing writers' strike, because he was given an ultimatum by his bosses to either resume filming or fire 75 people from his staff. He was criticized for returning, but it seems like it was a no-win situation. — AP
• The Anti-Defamation League says Will Smith is all good after the actor had to issue an enraged statement of clarification yesterday when a Scottish newspaper made it seem like he was sympathetic towards Hitler. Glad that mess is all cleared up, but it's too bad that it had to interfere with his holiday with his family. — TMZ
• New evidence in Brandy's car accident case suggests that the woman who died in the crash may have hit the car in front of her first, causing Brandy to swerve and hit the woman's car. The court has until the end of the day on Friday to decide whether to charge Brandy with vehicular manslaughter, after which the statute of limitations expires. Sounds like Brandy's 2008 may be getting off to a much better start than 2007. — TMZ
• ICYMI, Katherine Heigl got married this weekend!

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National Treasure: Book of Secrets, the sequel to Nicolas Cage's 2004 hit, scored big at the box office over the long holiday weekend, bringing in an estimated $65 million in the five-day period between Friday and Tuesday.

I Am Legend finished second, pulling in an estimated $47.5 million over the five days. Fox wouldn't estimate how much money Alvin and the Chipmunks made over the long weekend, but as of Sunday it had brought in $29 million and was in third place behind National Treasure and Legend.

Two Golden Globe nominees, Charlie Wilson's War and Sweeney Todd, battled for fourth and fifth place. Charlie Wilson brought in $14.8 million over five days, edging Sweeney Todd with $12.8 million.

Other notable numbers: P.S. I Love You finished sixth with $9.1 million. Meanwhile, Walk Hard failed to match the heights of Superbad or Knocked Up, bringing in just $5.8 million.

Next week's numbers should be interesting, as three relatively big movies — Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem, The Great Debaters, and The Water Horse — opened on Christmas Day.

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Will Smith brought his snarl and his Legend to London yesterday, once again a one-man show on the red carpet. He may be flying solo overseas, but he's not afraid to talk about how much he needs his wife. He recently told The Times of London, "Every day I need my woman to look at me right; I need Jada to have that look in her eyes. I can’t function if I don’t see it, whether it’s with my movies, or me as a father, or me as a husband. I have to educate myself to get to the place where I’m the best on Earth. . . . Then, and only then, can I be sure that my woman will never leave me.” Well that all sounds a bit intense, but at least Will knows what he wants. And at least we know that Jada's got a girlfriend to confide in about being married to such an interesting man.

To see more of Will in London just read more

This Fresh Prince of Bel–Air has certainly come a long way since his flat top hairdo and high–top sporting days. After his long run on the popular 80's show, Will Smith earned a name for himself in Hollywood as a distinguished actor and an accomplished musician.

The man in black still knows how to turn out hot hits while acting in blockbusters. He won a Grammy Award for "Summertime" and was nominated for the Academy Award for both Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness.

To see more about this double threat and his family, read more

Will Smith wasn't home to celebrate I Am Legend breaking box office records this weekend, but I'm sure he managed to have a great time in Paris promoting the movie. As if he doesn't have enough reason to smile, his Legend director, Francis Lawrence, is more than willing to boost Will's ego. He said, "He's one of the only people that I can truly say kind of has all of that. He's funny, he's charming, he's smart, he's handsome, he's happy, he's got a great marriage, he's a great father, he's great at what he does, he's happy at what he does. It's sort of disgusting. So if anybody would be the last man standing, it's Will." Plus, he's obviously still a box office titan, and we're already getting a taste for his next picture. Buzz has the teaser trailer for Hancock which is a little cringe-inducing (but just a little), but with Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman and Will, I have faith it will be a lot of fun.

Images include Will Smith, Francis Lawrence and Akiva Goldsman.

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• I Am Legend took the top spot at the box office over the weekend, breaking the previous record for the highest-grossing December opening, and bringing in $76.5 million. Congrats to Will, whose box-office pull is obviously still legend — wait for it — ary. — BuzzSugar
• Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter welcomed their second child, a girl, on Saturday in London. Combined with Tim's Golden-Globe nomination, it's been quite a week for their family! — People
• Alex Trebek, who suffered a minor heart attack last week, is back at home and has issued a statement thanking his fans for their outpouring of support and promising to return to Jeopardy in January. What is, we hope he gets well soon! — TMZ
• Celine Dion performed her final Las Vegas show on Saturday night, in an emotional end to her five-year run. Next up for Celine — a world tour. — AP
• John Travolta has apparently been fired from the upcoming movie version of Dallas, after two years of being attached to it, when producers decided to take the project in a more comedic direction. We guess even that a Golden-Globe nomination wasn't enough for them to keep him around. — Page Six
• Producer Harvey Weinstein married Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman on Saturday at his Connecticut-waterfront estate. Congrats to the happy (power) couple! — People

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Talk about a prophetic title: I Am Legend has proven to be, well, legendary. Taking in $76.5 million in its opening weekend, the Will Smith sci-fi thriller beat out Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($72.6 million) to become the highest-grossing December movie ever. In the history of box office sales in general, I Am Legend's opening weekend is the 16th highest-grossing of all time.

In addition, the updated CGI version of Alvin and the Chipmunks did extremely well, bringing in $45 million. By contrast, however, The Golden Compass drastically underperformed at the box office, coming in third place but totaling just $9 million in sales its second weekend in theaters. Enchanted came in fourth place with No Country for Old Men rounding out the top five. The returning film that did the most pleasingly is Atonement, which jumped from No. 15 to No. 9 on the charts, this weekend bringing in $1.8 million. Yay!

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Will Smith continued his worldwide tour promoting I Am Legend in Madrid today. He didn't have his BFF Tom or his family by his side this time around, but it looks like he was perfectly happy to represent the film all by himself. Judging by all the photos we've seen of super animated Will, you'd think the man never has a bad day but Buzz wasn't loving the film as much as its star was — check out her review here. We'll just have to see if the box office numbers will be enough to keep Will smiling into next week.

Lots more of Will being a goofball so just read more

I Am Legend is not a terrible movie. It's simply disappointing to see something that could have been great — and that starts out with some excellent things going for it — whimper out to nothing in the end. Based on Richard Matheson's 1954 sci-fi novel, this story has been adapted for film before (Last Man on Earth, Omega Man), with moderate success. Why a modern-day adaptation was supposed to work best is unclear (maybe the use of CGI was alluring?). Will Smith has a challenging task, acting almost entirely alone for the better part of the film, and he's surprisingly good at it. But his fine performance becomes the film's one redeeming quality, and one is not enough.

The movie starts out with Smith's character, Robert Neville, roaring around Manhattan in a sweet car, hunting for food. The visual construction of a barren, silent New York City is this film's strength. It's eerie to see "the city that never sleeps" half-crumbled, overgrown with weeds and devoid of human life. We discover that three years earlier, a virus took hold of the city and wiped out the entire city's population (and then the world's population) — with the exception of a few immune people, like Robert, and a group of infecteds who turned into "the night seekers." To find out more about these crazies, read more