It's no secret that creative visions can inspire bitter battles in Hollywood. The movie industry is a business, and executives don't want to make blockbusters that are going to repel audiences... but sometimes repellent material is necessary in storytelling, and filmmakers will often go to the mat defending hardcore elements in their work. That being said, I've never heard a behind-the-scenes story quite like what happened when Will Smith and writer/producer Akiva Goldsman pitched what is arguably the most devastating moment in the 2007 sci-fi thriller I Am Legend.
Those who have seen the film will remember that Will Smith's Neville has a canine companion named Sam for most of the movie, but their story together ends tragically when Sam is bitten and infected with the virus that effectively killed the world. As recounted in an interview in The Hollywood Reporter, Smith and Goldsman needed to get the green light from then-Warner Bros. President Alan Horn to include a scene where Neville euthanizes Sam, and it was a scene so painful that it's comical in retrospect. Smith remembers:
