Will Smith is 'Legend'...Again

Is it too much to ask that it has a happier ending this time? Will Smith will return to for a prequel to I Am Legend, with original director Francis Lawrence in place, working from a script by D.B. Weiss. The screenplay is pretty much already mapped out, according to Variety, which reports that Smith, Lawrence, James Lassiter, and producer and frequent screenwriter Akiva Goldsman have already prepared a detailed outline for Weiss to follow. Here's what we know: The world is coming to an end. Will Smith outlives everybody else. The story will follow Robert Neville (The Fresh Prince) from the initial outbreak of a man-made virus that infected the planet to at or near the beginning of I Am Legend, when Neville finds himself alone living in a New York City populated only by mutants who have been effected by the virus but have managed to survive. Variety says that a prequel was the only way to keep the franchise alive, and I'm sure that since it made about half a billion dollars, Warner Bros. really wanted to revisit this property. I happen to disagree, and think the sequel - in which, presumably, civilization rebuilds itself - would actually be much more interesting. It just wouldn't have Will Smith.

Comments

[Josie]

Does anyone actually want to see an "I Am Legend" prequal? Most of the people I talked to found the film underwhelming and disjointed--even if they hadn't read the book. As a fan of the original novel, I was one of them. I understand that book and film are two completely things and that sometimes it's best to NOT be slavishly faithful, but the spirit of Matheson's book vanished in the adaptation (not to mention the meaning of the title completely changed). Utimately, there was nothing to differentiate this version of "I Am Legend" from films like "28 Days Later," "Dawn of the Dead" and every zombie movie that's been made in the last 10 years. Shame, because I had felt that the film had a lot of potential.