I Am Legend was a huge hit for Warner Bros. back in 2009, with the Francis Lawrence helmed movie earning over $586 million worldwide. Starring Will Smith, talk of a sequel/prequel has never really stopped, and despite the fact that his character appeared to die, the actor was expected to return for next instalment.
Unfortunately, just as he’s seemingly decided to pass on reprising his role in Independence Day 2, Smith doesn’t seem interested in returning for another I Am Legend either, so the studio has now switched gears.
The next I Am Legend will be a reboot which will potentially kick off a new franchise as they’ve made the unusual choice to retrofit a screenplay by Gary Graham for a movie called A Garden At The End Of The World. He was working at an Apple Store in New York when his Black List script caught the attention of Hollywood bigwigs, and after noting similarities between this and I Am Legend, they’ve asked him to rewrite it.
Described as a sci-fi version of John Wayne’s The Searchers, Graham is giving it an I Am Legend makeover now, and original I Am Legend producers Akiva Goldsman of Weed Road, Overbrook’s James Lassiter and Safehouse Pictures’ Joby Harold are all on board to produce, along with Vertigo’s Roy Lee, and Weaver.
The prequel would have brought back Smith’s Robert Neville and focused on the early days of the outbreak.
This isn’t the first time a script has been retrofitted to extend a franchise as Jonathan Hensleigh’s Simon Says was turned into Die Hard With A Vengeance, George Nolfi’s Honor Among Thieves became the basis for Ocean’s Twelve and most recently, Adam Cozad’s Dubai was turned into the Jack Ryan reboot.
