WILL SMITH IN 'I AM LEGEND': Actor expected to be alone ... at the top of the box office ... again.

The phrase, "even if you were the last man on earth ..." takes on new meaning come this weekend, when the latest Will Smith blockbuster "I Am Legend" hits theaters nationwide.

Smith stars as scientist Robert Neville who is somehow immune to a man-made virus that wipes out earth's human inhabitants, with the exception of The Infected – the mutant victims of the plague.


With the exception of the revelation of the mutants, Smith stars solo on screen for most of the film, along with man's best friend. The star told reporters that being alone on screen was certainly one of the most challenging parts of filming and the most attractive.


“That was the terrifying part of taking on this film,” he said. “There are probably 80 pages of me and a dog. I’ve had good times on camera before and people have enjoyed me in the movie theater, but that might be a little too much Will for anybody.”


Smith explained that he and the writers and producers met with POWs and inmates to discuss the isolationist aspects of his role.


“We really found the things and the people that could really create the texture of what it truly means to be by yourself,” he said. “And one thing that was across the board was schedule. Geronimo ji-Jaga, formerly Geronimo Pratt, said that you would schedule things like cleaning your nails,” Will explained. “The only way to maintain sanity is that you had to have a regimen, you had to have a schedule ... you had to do things that you trained your mind that had to be done during this time.”


Next, Smith had to work on the internal monologue that was described by POWs, when there’s no other human stimulus.


“When you have no stimulus – no one’s talking to you – you have no external stimulus, you lose the stimulus response concept with your thoughts and feelings,” Smith told us. “A guy said you forget the names of simple things. He said he remembers sitting in his cell, and for about four hours he was trying to remember what fingers were called. He couldn’t remember. He said that’s what happens when you don’t have the stimulus response. The mind really loses basic, simple concepts. And we really worked in that area with the internal monologue. Rather than just saying ‘It’s a beautiful day today,’ you have to say, ‘Yes, it is.’ You have to say both things to yourself.”


Smith continued that audiences will still be quite entertained, even though it’s just him talking to himself at times.


“The extensive internal monologue that you have to create, it does a weird thing on camera,” he said. “When you see it, it looks full; it looks like a whole lot of things going on that's just a dude sitting there with a dog.”


Unlike other films opening this weekend, “I Am Legend” is hardly the warm and fuzzy holiday film. Instead it’s a psychological thriller of sorts with some major big-budget effects – something you might expect from Smith during the summer blockbuster months.


In fact, Smith met co-screenwriter Akiva Goldsman at the 2002 Academy Awards, the year Smith was up for Best Actor for “Ali” and Goldsman won Best Screenplay Adaptation for “A Beautiful Mind” that year where they posed the question about how the big movies come out in the summer, and the good movies come out in the fall.


“Why are they separated? Is there any possibility that you can take both and marry those ideas?” he asked. “You can make a big movie that has a big idea and the big concept, yet you can put a person at the center of it and really follow a character through whatever the reality of that situation is.”


“I Am Legend” is based on the book of the same name by Robert Matheson, and Smith plays the role once made famous by Charlton Heston in 1971’s “Omega Man” also based on the book and “The Last Man on Earth,” starring Vincent Price. However, as early critics are saying, “I Am Legend” is not a remake.


“As far as the other versions, the thing that I felt that we would be able to do with this film is that there’s never been this level of technology to support the film. You can actually shut down six blocks of Manhattan and if a car goes by in the background, you can remove it later. You can actually see empty New York. That level of technology has never been around to support the weight of the story.”


As the last man on earth, what comfort would movie star Will Smith keep with him?


“A pistol, because I’m out of here,” he laughed. “That was another thing with this film that I realized. It’s such a primal, child-like idea -- ‘I wish everybody was gone. I wish I was by myself.’ No you don’t. As much as people get on your nerves on the freeway, as much as people irritate you through your daily life, if you took everyone away, it would be the most miserable existence that you could experience. Human connection and the groups that we form, and being a part of something that moves and changes the world is such a basic, human, simple idea.”


“I Am Legend” opens today in theaters nationwide. For more, check out the website at http://iamlegend.warnerbros.com.