Hollywood loves a franchise. We get it!
But that does not mean that you make a sequel/prequel to every film – even films that don’t deserve it!
The Will Smith-starring I Am Legend was a stand-alone film, based on the wonderful novel by Richard Matheson. Now it would appear that the film made so much money that a prequel is in order.
Be warned SPOILERS FOLLOW about I Am Legend so if you haven’t seen it yet…
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Last chance!
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Will Smith bloody dies in the film - and the movie told us about the events that took place before the film’s main narrative. So why on earth make a frickin’ prequel?
Cash-money, that’s why.
Considering that Smith bit the big one at the end of the original, a prequel is the only way that the A-list star can return.
D.B Weiss is scripting based on an idea by Smith, Akiva Goldsman, James Lassiter and Francis Lawrence.
Do yourself a favor – skip this cash grabbing follow-up and buy Charlton Heston’s Omega Man and Vincent Price’s The Last Man on Earth instead!
What will it be called? I Will Be Legend?
Source: Variety
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19 Comments
no no Niall,
It will be called “I will be legend”
Rob, very good! I missed that in my edit but I’ve changed it.
Vic
The biggest problem with prequels ( in this genre ) is the continuity of climax. How the sequel tops the original in a film like this is to make the following problem bigger and more in-depth than the previous one; while in prequels if you make the problem bigger, then it undermines the original film and changes how the character would’ve reacted to it (IE: If you break your leg one year, then stub your toe rather than stubbing your toe, then breaking your leg ).
As stated, though, it’s not like this film even deserves a prequel or sequel.
So awful– I’d rather watch the televised movie version of Crime and Punishment.
Rev
Sorry but I thought both the other adaptations sucked as well. I think this is one of the greatest books ever written and it’s sad to see that everytime it gets adapted it gets screwed over so badly.
i actually liked I Am Legend, and i’m pretty excited to see what they do with a prequel.
I was EXTREMELY disappointed with I Am Legend. I was really looking forward to that film last year and it totally let me down, which is unusual for a Will Smith film (I enjoyed MIB, ID, and yes, Hancock). The movie was boring, drawn out and the ending stunk. Please, no prequel or sequels, let’s just let Will Smith make ID2!!! LOL!
@Paige
I actually thought it was pretty good myself. Of course I saw it in IMAX, and that always seems to add at least a half a star to my reviews.
Vic
Yeah Vic had it right. This was a ’stand alone movie’ and that’s the point here. Nothing is wrong with a sequel/prequel as long as the movie isn’t stand alone. But we all remember what happened with Highlander 2…. oh my gosh…. [barf]
Hello, Department of the Redundancy Department… Will Smith here, I don’t think we squeezed enough cash out of my last post apocalyptic movie and we need your expertise right away.. Uh Huh.. yeah.. now say that is a good excuse “we think we can do better by this material so were giving it another go around”… Yes thank you so much for your help. Well.. I’ll be sure to mention your timely advice to the studio head… well thank you and keep focusing on those Redundant excuses.. Have a good one..
Hey, the good ending where he lives allowes for a sequel- why don’t they make it a sewuel not a prequel and on the movie poster write, watch alteretive ending before seeing moive…
What was wrong with I am Legend, I thought it was one of the best horror movies ever!
Johnny-K I loved the ending, and don’t want to see another. So, as far as I’m concerned, the idea of a prequel is good news to me!
A sequel based on the “controversial” ending. Have the ID4 aliens return. Now the vampire leader that was trying to save his mate in the alternate story has to join up with Will Smith to stop them. Now we can have two sequels for the price of one.
I think that I Am Not Legend Yet was already proposed.
Just sayin.
I thought the first half of the film was pretty good, but it turned to crap right around the middle point. The film was doing great and I loved the emotional scene with the dog, but the moment there were colonies of people who lived and everything along those lines I got a little sick. The first half honored the book the second half pissed on it.
I agree that there is a way out of this for the director / writer. The alternative ending of the film had him live. Of course they were complete idiots for killing him off in the first movie considering the complete lack of fresh ideas out there in Hollywood lately. I know, this film isn’t based on a fresh idea, but you as a general rule never kill off your lead in the first film.
I think the reason this film hits so many people deeply is that we’ve read about all these huge plagues that wiped out Europe and then we glance around seeing that we haven’t had something even remotely close hit us with the lethality it hit them with. I think the last “big one” was the Spanish Influenza outbreak right after World War One. Sure, we’ve had AIDS (which doesn’t spread fast enough to be put in the same league as Influenza) a we’ve had SARS (certainly didn’t spread fast enough to be scary to those it didn’t directly affect). There were the few cases of Ebola in Africa, but that bug has always been far too efficient at killing its host to effectively spread. You get the idea. I think people see all the stuff that happened back then with the millions of people dying. Tour the Paris Underground sometime if you’re curious about a sampling of the lives lost.
The films of the past certainly stir this in us. Most of them fall short of really making us scared about what could be coming into our bodies in the next deep breath outdoors. 12 Monkeys is by far the film I found most interesting. The Resident Evil series made us all wonder what all those biotech labs around the world are REALLY working on buried deep underground. As pathetic as it was, “The Happening” tried to bring the idea of CCD (Community Collapse Disorder) in bees to us. It’s a genre that’s been around for quite a while. The premise is simple. There’s something out there that’ll either kill you, or made you wish you had died, and you have no control over it. You can’t even see it.
I think I Am Legend 2 could be done up really well if they focused on the biotech side of things, stirring up those deep fears in people. The key would be a “we screwed up re-release” of the film with the original ending scrubbed from the film completely. Perhaps some new extra features as well. If I were them, I’d come up with a title that isn’t anything like I Am Legend. People will figure it out through marketing.
He died in the book so it would of been idiotic to actually make him live especially since they already pissed all over the book enough.
sequel, prequel, no more i am legend movies, who cares?
I Am Legend was a great movie and a prequel would be pointless, but id probably go see it anyways out of curiousity about whether it turned out good or bad, a sequel based on the alternate ending sounds great, however dont mean to be rude jon but
that probably would be a straight to dvd movie with new actors if they went with that plot. but aside from that a sequel based on the alt ending sounds pretty cool, and finally if they decide not to make any more legend movies, also..cool thats fine with me itll give will smith time to work on hancock 2 or a new blockbuster hit! my point is, whichever direction they take, whether it be prequel, sequel, or nothing at all, they all have pretty decent outcomes.
I really loved the first half of I’am legend…everybody loves the story of the last man on earth. Will did such a great job…the cheesy (vampire cgi) killed the second half…hell i would have been hyper to see will walk aimlessly around to the point of madness. please leave the movie be.
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