Michael B Jordan will also star in the film while Akiva Goldsman is set to write the screenplay
Will Smith has revealed that the production of I Am Legend 2 is well underway, with both him and Michael B Jordan definitely on board for the sequel to his 2007 post-apocalyptic action film.
Smith told an In Conversation at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival on Saturday evening that the script for the film had just arrived.
“I have a call with Michael B. Jordan tomorrow,” the Oscar-winning actor said. “We’re really close. I am probably giving up too much information…the script just came in,” he said.
The original was a box office smash, grossing $585.4 million against a budget of $150 million. While a sequel might make financial sense, it comes with a narrative hurdle as Smith’s character, Dr Robert Neville, died at the end of the first film.
But Hollywood has never been afraid to let the plot stand in the way of a sequel and writer Akiva Goldsman has reportedly found a creative way out of a certain dead end.
Referencing the death of his character, Smith said to the crowd: “We’re going with the mythology of the DVD version where my character lives and I can’t tell you anymore.”
Here is all we know about I Am Legend 2 so far.
What is I Am Legend?
In 2007, I Am Legend continued Smith’s seemingly unstoppable run at the box office with his turn as Dr Neville. Much of the film sees him wander the deserted streets of post-apocalypse New York City with only his dog for company.
Francis Lawrence directed the adaptation of the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and also took inspiration from a previous film adaptation of the novel; The Omega Man. Dr Neville experiments on infected rats to try to find a cure for a virus that has wiped out 99 per cent of the world’s population.
How did I Am Legend end?
The film finishes with Dr Neville sacrificing himself to allow his friends, a woman and her son, to escape New York to a haven in Vermont. However, the 2008 DVD release contains an alternative ending that more closely follows the novel. In this universe, Dr Neville reaches a truce with the infected who were about to kill him and leaves the city with his friends and fellow survivors.
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What has been announced?
