At nearly three hours long, "Meet Joe Black" (opening today) is going to be a hard sell to movie audiences. And making them think about their own mortality won't help either. (Death, in the form of Brad Pitt, visits Earth to experience life before dragging Anthony Hopkins' character away.) But "Black"'s director, Martin Brest, says the movie's subject matter shouldn't be a factor at the box office. "The hard part seemed to be trying to figure out what one would even say about the subject," Brest tells EW Online. "We don't really talk about death in the movie, other than Hopkins' character dying. That was a conscious decision: to figure out a way to tell the story without rummaging around morbid, sophomoric imagery."

Still, death proved to be popular watercooler conversation on the set. "Do I fear it? No, what's the point?" asks Hopkins. "We're all suffering from the terminal condition called life, and we're all going to die one day. So we might as well enjoy it." Costar Claire Forlani doesn't seem to fear it, either -- but, then again, it helps that Brad Pitt is its human form. "It's a beautiful concept that death could look that good," she observes, "isn't it?"

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