I Am Legend Prequel on the way...

Director Francis Lawrence revealed at Comic-Con this past weekend that he is, in fact, thinking seriously on a prequel to the Will Smith vehicle that collected nearly $580 million worldwide. The inexperienced movie director - Lawrence scored pretty big with I Am Legend, having only Constantine and a slew of pop-music videos under this belt — said of the prospect, "Yes, yes, absolutely, we're actually trying to crack that. We're trying to figure out some ideas for it."In my mind, this is some pretty cool news. I definitely count Legend among the better movies in my collection, due equally to the storyline and Smith's performance. The abandoned shots of New York City and the genre-bending monsters is simply some kickass subject matter. If Lawrence can take us back a bit and color in the events and virus that led up the 2007 film, that will be fantastic. He feels pretty confident that Smith will return as Dr. Robert Neville, as well, which pretty much completes the financial equation. Smith seems assured box office gold, evidenced recently by the $380+ million worldwide earned on Hancock already, despite a lacking 38% on Rotten Tomatoes.

It seems Lawrence and crew might even have a head start on particular aspects of the prequel, given their build-up to the first movie. "In the prequel, it's slightly different because it's earlier. We were three years later so we did a lot of research into the way nature would have sort of overtaken the city, with the cracks in the streets and the weeds." And even though the director brushes off the concern, I'd still be crazy worried about shutting down parts of one of the busiest cities in the world; that feat, after all, is big part of what makes Legend so compelling. "The first time you got out there and shut down 6th Avenue, it's like, 'How are we going to do this day after day after day?' but by the end, it's just like you know how to do it. You got the P.A.'s who know how to shut it down, how to let the traffic through in between set-ups and you just sort of get the routine down, so that's not the issue."

We'll definitely keep an eye on this project and bring you the latest developments. However, as with my circle of friends, I've encountered really mixed opinions of I Am Legend. Are you interested in a prequel?

Source:Shock Till You Drop, FirstShowing.net