It has been a long time since we’ve heard anything about a follow-up to Warner Bros.’ 2007 blockbuster I Am Legend, but now Deadline is reporting that the studio has closed deals with Akiva Goldsman and Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment to make another film. The original, made for about $150 million, earned a massive $585.3 million worldwide.
Acording to the site, “the intention is for Will Smith to reprise his role as scientist Robert Neville, who was the last man on earth doing battle with a mutated mob in New York City after an apocalyptic man-made virus wiped out the population.”
Arash Amel (upcoming The Expatriate and Grace of Monaco) has been hired to write the script.
Deadline adds that the film is not being called a prequel, so it will be interesting what story they will tell considering the events that took place in I Am Legend. The site is unsure if director Francis Lawrence will return.
Will Smith said this was the idea about three years ago: “It’s essentially the fall of the last city the last stand of Manhattan. The movie would be…within the body of the movie D.C. and then Manhattan would fall as the last city. It’s a really cool idea trying to figure it out…there’s a reason why we have to take a small band and we have to get into D.C. So we have to make our way from New York to D.C. and then back to New York.”
We’ll have to wait and see if that’s still the case.
