Warner Brothers is planning to punish us with a follow up to I AM LEGEND, the Will Smith “last man on Earth” film based on Richard Matheson’s famed novel of the same name. Deals have been closed to have Akiva Goldsman, Overbrook Entertainment, and screenwriter Arash Amel to continue the exploits of Dr. Robert Neville (Smith) attempting to find a cure for a plague that has turned people into vampiric monsters.
There’s one, teeny-tiny little detail that needs to be addressed…put your movie ear muffs on if you haven’t seen the masterwork that is known as I AM LEGEND…and that is the sacrificial death of Neville at the end of the film. I can see it now, the sequel begins with Will Smith laying in the rubble of his hand grenade explosion, surrounded by vampire-creature bodies. The camera dolly’s up to him, unmoving and thought dead. Then it stops on his face and he pops up, shaking off the rubble and yelling his trademark “Wooo!” Title Screen: I Am Legend…still.
I didn’t hate I AM LEGEND, but once those CGI monsters showed up in full bloom I found it impossible to take it seriously (because I usually take apocolyptic plague shit VERY seriously). The use of CGI killed the film, making the monsters looks completely unrealistic, cheesy, and not-scary-at-all.
Apparently, Smith won’t sign on the dotted line until he sees the script and there’s no word on whether or not Francis Lawrence will return to direct. I’m not really opposed to a sequel (which I’d prefer over a prequel) but they’ve got to ditch the CGI, which I think would be a major step in the right direction.
More to follow as this develops.