WB To Retrofit Spec Script For I AM LEGEND Sequel

In 2007, I Am Legend, which starred Will Smith ("Six Degrees of Separation") as 'Dr. Robert Neville', earned Warner Bros. $586 million at the worldwide box office. Then in 2012, Warner Bros. decided that they wanted a follow-up and hired Grace of Monaco screenwriter Arash Amel to pen a prequel, that would've featured Will Smith's 'Neville' just before the outbreak. That attempted failed to get a greenlight from WB, and it was scrapped. Fast forward to this past April, Warner Bros. purchased a the spec script A Garden At The End Of The World that was written by an unknown screenwriter, Gary Graham. The script has been described as a "sci-fi version of John Wayne’s The Searchers." WB noticed that Graham's script could work as a follow-up to I Am Legend with some tweaking and here and there. WB then approached the original I Am Legend producers Akiva Goldsman, James Lassiter and Joby Harold with their idea of retrofitting the spec script and they gave it the thumbs up as well.

For me, I Am Legend is a incredibly frustrating film. If the producers had stuck to their guns and kept the original ending which was faithful to themes from Richard Matheson's 1954 novel in which the film was loosely-adapted from. As you can see in the video below, the original ending of I Am Legend reveals that the mindless creatures aren't so mindless as 'Neville' has believed. They are actually trying to rescue one of their own from 'Neville.' The main theme of the book is that 'Neville' realizes that he is the true monster. Test audiences didn't care for that ending and a new ending was shot. You can watch the theatrical ending below. As you know, it has 'Neville' killing himself and the creatures with a grenade. The audience is left believing that the creatures were mindless beasts. What a waste of a fairly good film. Also: it would've been better if they went with practical effects for the infected as the CGI already looks incredibly dated.

Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable…and manmade. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City…and maybe the world. But he is not alone. He is surrounded by “the Infected” - victims of the plague who have mutated into carnivorous beings who can only exist in the dark and who will devour or infect anyone or anything in their path. For three years, Neville has spent his days scavenging for food and supplies and faithfully sending out radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. All the while, the Infected lurk in the shadows, watching Neville’s every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind’s last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But his blood is also what The Infected hunt, and Neville knows he is outnumbered and quickly running out of time.