Attention cinema savvy pet lovers! The tagline to Will Smith’s latest movie may be a no-brainer: “The last man on earth… is not alone.” Smith shares the big screen with yet another canine co-star (á la MIB) in director Francis Lawrence’s (Constantine) upcoming film I Am Legend. The movie is a twenty-first century take on Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel that shares the same name of the film, slated to be released this winter.
Smith plays scientist Robert Neville, who could be the only uninfected human survivor of a deadly, man-made plague that wiped out New York City. Neville spends years trying to find other survivors in hopes that he can formulate a cure using his blood as immunity. But Neville, as the tagline promises, is not entirely alone. While fending off the infected, he still has man’s best friend, a German Shepherd named Sam that tails him around the vacant city. We heard the pooch, whose real name is Abby, was the “biggest on-set diva.” But don’t think she’s always had a big head! Abby was rescued from an animal shelter and extensively trained for the apocalyptic picture. Smith even took the pup home to do some important character bonding.
Dogs are no strangers in the Smith home. Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith have been pet owners for years. The couple has Rottweilers and coincidentally, before he was known as the phenomenal “Dog Whisperer,” Cesar Millan was just “the guy walking dogs for Will Smith and Jada Pinkett.” Pinkett-Smith was so pleased with Millan’s work that she paid for a year of English lessons for the Mexican native. What did she do once Millan hit it big? Apparently when Pinkett-Smith was too busy to take the dogs out, she bought a $1,200 treadmill so they could stay fit indoors. Bow-WOW!
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