Will Smith must be on a real sci-fi kick these days, because he’s currently making After Earth for M Night Shyamalan, plus he’s got the third Men In Black coming this summer.
And now the news hits that he’s up for another installment of I Am Legend. Of course, it can’t be a sequel to the original because he died at the end, but this apparently will probably be a prequel to the latest update of the classic Richard Matheson short story, which had been made into movies two previous times with The Last Man on Earth, and The Omega Man.
There were plans in the works to do a modern version of the classic story for many years, going back to the mid nineties when it was going to star Schwarzenegger and Ridley Scott was interested in directing. While the Will Smith version took departures from the original story, Matheson was happy with the end result.
Now The Hollywood Reporter tells us that the story will indeed be back for more, and I’m sure it’s because Legend was a huge hit worldwide. Smith is currently producing the Legend prequel, with a script being written by Arah Amel, with the potential that Smith will be back to star.
Matheson, who also wrote many classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, Duel, Somehwere in Time, and Reel Steel, once joked to me he’ll probably see I Am Legend hit the screen at least three more times in his life time, and this was before reboot and prequel mania was in full swing. (It should also be noted that Matheson is in his mid eighties.) Now if things get moving on this prequel, Matheson’s facetious prophecy may actually come true.
