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Smith and Lawrence Return For 'I Am Legend' Prequel
Thursday, September 25, 2008


By: MrDisgusting
Comments

After booming in nearly $600 million worldwide at the box office, it was no secret that Warner Bros. Pictures was prepping a follow-up to the Will Smith starrer I Am Legend. Today it was revealed that a prequel to the adaptation is in the pipeline, with not only Will Smith returning as Dr. Robert Neville, but also Francis Lawrence getting back behind the camera. You can read the story inside.

Warner Bros. has set in motion a prequel to the Will Smith starrer "I Am Legend," according to Variety.

The plan is for Smith to reprise his role as scientist Robert Neville, with Francis Lawrence returning to direct. Akiva Goldsman and his Weed Road banner will produce with James Lassiter, Smith’s partner in Overbrook Entertainment.

The studio has set D.B. Weiss to write a script that is based on a detailed outline that was hatched over the past few months by Smith, Goldsman, Lassiter and Lawrence.

The prequel will chronicle the final days of humanity in New York before a man-made virus caused a plague that left Smith’s character the lone survivor among a mutated mob in the city.

Making a prequel was the only way to extend a franchise that grossed $584 million worldwide for Warner Bros. and keep Smith in the lead role. His character was killed in the first film, after extracting a potential cure for the virus for the scattered survivors.



Source: Variety

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Read 29 User Comments
mbuckingham
5:20am, September 25, 2008
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Cool, really glad that they are making a sequel, just can't wait for it to come out!

Boilersuit_Mayhem
5:29am, September 25, 2008
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So what are they going to call it? 'I Am Not a Legend Yet, But I Will Be at Some Point in the Near Future'?

Grime
7:53am, September 25, 2008
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This is ridiculous.

undead616
8:31am, September 25, 2008
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The 'mutated' better look better then the stupid CGI 'comp-game' clones they had last time out [Looked cheap + a rush job]

silverfall
8:46am, September 25, 2008
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no...leave a mediocre thing be...the movie butchered the story from the novel...the only consistant thing was his name. all sense of isolation was lost and the ending pissed me off. they completely missed the point. a prequel wont help that at all.

americangods
8:52am, September 25, 2008
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For some people, turning I Am Legend into a 28 Days Later clone must've seemed like a great idea. And now we've got a sequel to another adaptation of a great story botched by the interference of Will Smith (as if I Robot wasn't bad enough). I don't know what the monsters in this version of I Am Legend were supposed to be, but they definitely weren't vampires. Nocturnal zombies, maybe, but not vampires. The ending also pales in comparison to the original story's. Watching Will Smith gets chased around by cartoon characters for two hours is not scary and I don't recall Neville reciting lines from Shrek in Richard Matheson's short story either.

Jackson
9:06am, September 25, 2008
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What a waste of time and money. The movie couldn´t even portray the isolation and loneliness the character suffers in Richard Matheson´s book. And now they are making a prequel????!!!!! Go fuck yourself.

j532
9:32am, September 25, 2008
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i haven't read the book yet but i'm going to have to get it based on all the haters comments, the first time i even heard about the plot of this the first thing that came to mind was the "last man on earth" with vincent price and i was sorely disappointed when I realized thaat it was pretty much a remake.

ashesdivide
10:13am, September 25, 2008
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What? Smith's acting was the only reason I stayed in the theatre. I just wish the movie itself would have stuck with the book. I Am Legend didn't do it justice in the least bit. The only redeeming quality, was, the acting. Which was suprising because we're talking about Will Smith...

BoredSeal
10:21am, September 25, 2008
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If the dog is back, I will watch it. :)

supafox
10:43am, September 25, 2008
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This is a waste of time, in my opinion.

stl7dust
10:49am, September 25, 2008
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When i first read the title, I thought you meant Martin Lawrence... I got scared but I remembered the director's name. Bad Boys 3: I Am Legend.

horrorchick81
10:49am, September 25, 2008
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i am confused how the heck are they going to do a prequel with will smith in it?!?!?! didnt he die in that explosion in the end???? the only survivors were that chick and her son i thought??? unless hed be in like the first ten min. like how jamie lee curtis was in halloween resurection??? dont get me wrong i love will smith. he is a great actor. i just dont nkow hwo theyd pull this off.

thedescent08
11:01am, September 25, 2008
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better than a remake for the kiddies

pastorz
11:14am, September 25, 2008
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I enjoyed the first movie, even though it wasn't that much closer to the original Matheson story than "Last Man on Earth" or "The Omega Man". A prequel, however...ugggghhhh! What are they thinking? I just hope this doesn't spin-off into an ongoing franchise (I Am Legend III, IV, V & VI).

Dr_Loomis
11:41am, September 25, 2008
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horrorchick81, a prequel takes place before, not after. As far as this goes, this will be terrible.

Monsterkidd
12:52pm, September 25, 2008
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I haven't read the book yet, but i thought the movie was alright. Just alright. Maybe i should go buy the book ...

coldblood
2:11pm, September 25, 2008
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I Am Legend was OK, but it was no 28 Days/Weeks Later. The CGI thing kind of ruins the experience. CGI was the coolest thing since slice bread when Jurassic Park came out. Now; instead of thinking "how they do that effect", we're thinking "shit, more fucking CGI".

AkronLowlife
3:21pm, September 25, 2008
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What could possibly happen in the prequel? I know they knew about the virus but when they were getting ready to leave in the first one it was nighttime and they weren't terrified of being eaten. So i dunno, but i'm already waiting for dvd.

ultrazilla2000
5:20pm, September 25, 2008
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Why does everything that makes money in Hollywood have to be a franchise? Can't they funnel some of that money into a good writer to actually come up with some new material? We already know the outcome, so the prequel is pointless story wise. It's not like there are some grand mysteries or unknown dramatic events that take place. Virus spreads and everyone is dead or a mutant except for Smith...the end. What more is there to tell?

KingOfHorror
5:47pm, September 25, 2008
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I Predict BOMB at Box OFFICE!

Mr.Bleek
6:00pm, September 25, 2008
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Will Smith will grosses 200 million by himself so it def wont bomb..hi haters. cant wait to see it..

fatstuff
7:00pm, September 25, 2008
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Wow you guys are haters, this movie was so awesome!

GreatGodPanDemic
7:19pm, September 25, 2008
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Ok, I really don't get the purists fudging their Huggies pull-ups about the movie not being faithful to the Matheson novella; I read the book and it SUCKED, sorry. I'm not some video-head ADD kid who only watches movies and hates reading because the words make my head hurt, either. I read an ass-load of horror and sci-fi, I'm also a big fan of Matheson's work in general, but IAL the novella was a phone-in for him. If they'd made the movie faithful to the book it would've been two hours of watching grass grow. It wasn't scary, it wasn't suspenseful, the vampires were weak, the science of the explanation for the plague was a joke (he was immune because he was bitten by a vampire bat in Panama?!? Are you fucking with me right now?) and the protagonist was a typical 50's-era angst-y crybaby (and before you try to call me on a technical point, I know the story was set in the 1970's, but was written in the 50's). I've seen all three film treatments and ironically the most-maligned one, Last Man On Earth, is the one that's most faithful to the book.

Stinger839
8:38pm, September 25, 2008
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NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO This is truly terrible. Another sad day for the film industry.

deadfactory
11:08pm, September 25, 2008
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Is there anything you people like? Seriously, u all sit there and praise movies like Hostel and shit like that, but this movie makes you upset, wow. Im really starting to think that horror fans dont know what true horror is......SUSPENSE, not the amount of gore, gore doesnt mean its horror, duh.

RachelPachel
1:17am, September 26, 2008
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LAME......I'm surprised they aren't just remaking it... I mean its been a WHOLE YEAR....

cuttingteeth
1:39pm, September 26, 2008
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No one is more pissed than I am. I wrote a novel in 2005 that this film completely ripped off. The novel is called HOLD, and it starts off with my one character and his German Shepard named, " Sid. " That's just one of many " coincidences " in the film " adaptation " of I Am Legend. I've always loved Matheson's original novella of I Am Legend, I was fully aware of what not to rip off for writing my novel and sure enough, Hollywood still can't be original or credit the right people. This is why I'm making my own films, now.

The Dark One
2:07pm, September 27, 2008
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I love the book it's awesome. The closest thing to the book is the film The Last Man On Earth starring Vincent Price, however i did really enjoy I Am Legend and i'm glad they're making a prequel but we pretty much saw how everything happened anyway with his flashbacks.


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I Am Legend

STARRING: Will Smith Alice Braga Salli Richardson-Whitfield Willow Smith Charlie Tahan
DIRECTOR: Francis Lawrence
WRITER: Richard Matheson, Mark Protosevich


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