Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: akiva goldsman, antivaxxer, COVID, i am legend, pandemic, Warner Bros, will smith

I Am Legend Writer Akiva Goldsman Goes Off on Antivaxxer Hijacking

Producer and writer Akiva Goldsman isn't having any s*** when it comes to those like anti-vaxxers who associate their propaganda with his projects, in this case, 2007's I Am Legend. The Star Trek executive producer took the time to respond when Time's Washington correspondent Vera Bergengruen isolated a paragraph from a New York Times piece on employee vaccinations.

"One employee [at Metro Optics Eyewear] said she was concerned because she thought a vaccine had caused the characters in the film I Am Legend to turn into zombies. People opposed to vaccines have circulated that claim about the movie's plot widely on social media. But the plague that turned people into zombies in the movie was caused by a genetically reprogrammed virus, not by a vaccine."

Bergengruen added, "I'm sorry, what?" with writer Marc Bernardin chimed in tweeting, "We. Are. All. Going. To. Die. Sooner. Than. We. Should." Goldsman, presumably after banging his head against the wall a few times, offered his tongue-in-cheek response. "Oh. My. God. It's a movie. I made that up. It's. Not. Real." Directed by Francise Lawrence, I Am Legend, based on the Richard Matheson novel of the same name, stars Will Smith as Dr. Robert Neville, whose medical research inadvertently ends up nearly wiping out all of humanity, turning them into bloodthirsty nocturnal zombie-like creatures. Goldsman and Mark Protosevich wrote the screenplay. The film, which also starred Alice Braga (The Suicide Squad) and Charlie Tahan (Ozark), ended up a box office success garnering $585 million worldwide for Warner Bros. Smith himself appeared on his wife Jada Pinkett Smith's talk series Red Table Talk on Facebook Watch to emphasize practicing safety amidst the pandemic joking, "I made I Am Legend, so I feel responsible for a lot of the misinformation."

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!