Will Smith talks I AM LEGEND prequel



Just a few hours ago I attended the press day for “Seven Pounds” and was able to participate in a roundtable interview with the biggest movie star on the planet….Will Smith.

As most of you know, Warner Bros. has started working on a sequel to “I am Legend” and while it was first reported as a prequel, word has started to spread that it was, in fact, a sequel. But if you’ve seen the movie, you know a sequel might be tough to pull off with Will Smith as the main character.

Add to that, when fandom got wind that they were working on a prequel; let’s just say most didn’t think it was a good idea.

So when I got to ask my question, I asked if “I am Legend” was a sequel or prequel and I also asked Will what excited him about returning to the character. Here’s what he said:

Collider: Speaking of Robert Neville and I am Legend, there has been a lot talk about you possibly doing a prequel or sequel to that film. Could you tell us what it is and what excites you about going back to that character?



Will Smith: We have a fantastic prequel idea…we’re still trying to work through a couple of bumps in the story. 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.

Question: Will the dog be back in it?

Will Smith: Yes, the dog will be a puppy.

I have to say…after hearing Will’s description of the movie; I think this idea could work. Imagine a big road movie with a few characters having to fight their way somewhere and then returning and having to protect the last city.

While I still think Will should do an original property and not return to the Robert Neville character, I am way more excited to see this than before.

Francis Lawrence reveals what he wants in an I Am Legend prequel



Francis Lawrence, who directed 2007's I Am Legend, told SCI FI Wire that he, star Will Smith and writer/producer Akiva Goldsman are awaiting a script, by D.B. Weiss, for the proposed prequel film, which will again explore the idea of what it means to be the last man on Earth.

"That was the real reason I wanted to do the movie in the first place, really, was the idea of 'What does that world look like, what does it do to you when you're by yourself?'" Lawrence said in an exclusive interview Thursday night in Universal City, Calif., where he was promoting his upcoming limited NBC series Kings. "What does it do without people, without companionship and sound and the loss of your family, without anybody to talk to? I think that's really what people connected to, and so the tough thing is, how do we do that again and in a different way?"

The first film showcased Smith's performance as Robert Neville, the last human survivor of a virulent plague that has transformed the rest of humanity into ravening vampire-like creatures. The prequel would step back to a time before the events of the first movie, which was based on Richard Matheson's classic SF novel. The movie is reportedly envisioned as a prequel because Smith's character perishes in the first movie.

"I have my beliefs on what was interesting about the first story and what was not so interesting about the first story, and I think that to go back, there has to be a truly viable reason to go back into that world that I think interested everybody, so that's the real struggle," Lawrence said. "The struggle is to find a story that brings us back in a way that's hopefully just as interesting as the first time around."

Lawrence added: "Yeah, if we figure out the story, I'm absolutely involved in the prequel. ... We've had conversations. The three of us, Will and Akiva and I, have sat down and talked, and there's a writer that's working on it right now. So we came up with the bones of a story, and now we're waiting to see a script."

Lawrence said there's no time frame for development of the project. "It's really just honestly about trying to come up with something really good," he said. "I think that's the bottom line for all of us: ... It's not a rush. It's 'Let's just try and make it good and make it right and do what we want to do.'"