Warner Bros Plans 'I Am Legend' Prequel

From Variety: Warner Bros. has set in motion a prequel to the Will Smith starrer "I Am Legend." The plan is for Smith to reprise his role as scientist Robert Neville, with Francis Lawrence returning to direct. Akiva Goldsman and his Weed Road banner will produce with James Lassiter, Smith’s partner in Overbrook Entertainment.

The studio has set D.B. Weiss to write a script that is based on a detailed outline that was hatched over the past few months by Smith, Goldsman, Lassiter and Lawrence.

The prequel will chronicle the final days of humanity in New York before a man-made virus caused a plague that left Smith’s character the lone survivor among a mutated mob in the city.

Making a prequel was the only way to extend a franchise that grossed $584 million worldwide for Warner Bros. and keep Smith in the lead role. His character was killed in the first film, after extracting a potential cure for the virus for the scattered survivors.

The Thing Prequel In Works?

Fangoria.com reported that Strike Entertainment, the production company behind the Dawn of the Dead remake and Slither, is looking for writers to draft a prequel to John Carpenter's classic SF movie The Thing.

Other proposed Thing-related projects have come and gone in recent years. Universal released Carpenter's 1982 movie, which was an update of 1952's The Thing From Another World, which in turn was based on John W. Campbell Jr.'s short story "Who Goes There?"

- The Monster