While promoting Seven Pounds Will Smith spoke to Collider about the I Am Legend prequel we’ve been hearing about. Turns out they have a pretty cool idea for the prequel, and the coolest news of all is that we will once again get to see Sam the dog!

Collider: Speaking of Robert Neville and I am Legend, there has been a lot talk about you possibly doing a prequel or sequel to that film. Could you tell us what it is and what excites you about going back to that character?

Will Smith: We have a fantastic prequel idea…we’re still trying to work through a couple of bumps in the story. It’s essentially the fall of the last city – the last stand of Manhattan. The movie would be…within the body of the movie D.C. and then Manhattan would fall as the last city. It’s a really cool idea trying to figure it out…there’s a reason why we have to take a small band and we have to get into D.C. So we have to make our way from New York to D.C. and then back to New York.

Collider: Will the dog be back in it?

Will Smith: Yes, the dog will be a puppy.

According to a source who got in touch with AICN, the planned I Am Legend prequel may now be something different…

Let’s start at the beginning. Smith is actually the one who developed the initial story. It took place several years before the original film and there were still pockets of survivors and the story centered around Smith interacting, bonding, and ultimately failing to save them. For months this was the story. Warner’s didn’t much care for it and Smith and Weiss eventually came on board and all parties agreed to change things up. Well this change is pretty insane, the film is no longer a prequel, it’s a fucking sequel!

If this is true the only problem I see is that [spoiler] Will Smith blew himself up at the end of I Am Legend. If the writers can get around that sticky situation then everything should be cool.

There has been talk about the possibility of an I Am Legend prequel ever since the movie came out last year. Variety have now confirmed that Warner Bros are moving ahead with the prequel and the good news is that Will Smith will be back as Dr. Robert Neville, and will also be co-producing. Personally I’d rather they left it as it is, however if they are going to make a prequel, which they are, then I would rather have Willard back.

The movie will cover the final days of humanity in New York City before a man-made virus creates a plague that wipes out the population, leaving Neville alone with the mutated inhabitants.

Any thoughts for a title?

Being a huge fan of trailer mash-ups I intend to post every cool one that I get sent or stumble across. This time it is the I Am Legend trailer mixed with footage from Home Alone.

Thinking about it now Home Alone is just a kid friendly version of I Am Legend, apart from the killing machines in Legend are replaced by pesky robbers who should be on the sex offenders register.

Thanks to Steve for emailing me this.

I Am Legend became the second-biggest non-sequel of 2007 with $584 million worldwide, and ever since then there’s been a lot of rumours and speculation whether Warner Bros. would try to do some kind of prequel or sequel to it. Well it turns out they are.

Director Francis Lawrence spoke to ShockTillYouDrop at Comic Con International and he confirmed rumours that he is working on the sequel.

“Yes, yes, absolutely, we’re actually trying to crack that. We’re trying to figure out some ideas for it, but yes, it would be a prequel.” He did confirm that Will Smith, who’s done a couple of sequels in his career, would definitely be into doing more with the character.

“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, so if it’s just back earlier, it’ll be slightly different so the approach will be different. We’re not positive of the time of the year, because if you go in winter, you can do some entirely different kinds of things.”

I’m not too sure how I feel about this. I enjoyed I Am Legend and I feel it should stand alone as a single film. It is clear Warner Bros are doing this for the money and there is a chance a prequel could end up being worse than I Am Legend.

What do you think? Do you want Will Smith back? And most importantly, do you want all of our mannequin friends back?

FRED!!!

The alternate ending to Will Smith’s I Am Legend has found its way onto YouTube. If you haven’t already seen I Am Legend then shame on you! It was a great film and although the ending was not perfect, it is better than what you are about to see. The title of this post kinda gives you a hint as to what we got in the theatrical version, and you can see the other ending below.

Apparently this was supposed to be in the final film, but Warner Brothers didn’t think the ending would please the mainstream audience, which I agree. You have zombie mutants running around trying to kill Will Smith’s character throughout most of the film, and when they finally get to him, the alpha male and himself have a moment and then the zombies run away, leaving Robert Neville and company to live happily ever after. BORING!

I’m glad Robert Neville blew himself up.

Right after I Am Legend came out, people were clamoring over the fake Batman vs. Superman billboard in the film’s apocalyptic future version of Times Square. Director Francis Lawrence, who was supposedly once attached to the project, threw that in there as a little easter egg for the fans. The image hit the ‘net, and fanboys everywhere hoped it was a reality.

Then, a few days later, reports started cropping up that fake posters for the Teen Titans and Green Lantern movies were hidden in the film as well. Though we didn’t have any confirmation, the rumors persisted. We just assumed we’d have to wait for the DVD to find out for sure.

Well, we were wrong. We at Filmonic got the exclusive on this one (go us!). When Will Smith’s character, Robert Neville, enters the video store for the first time, we get some fleeting glimpses of the posters.

Unfortunately, we don’t get a very clear view of them. The Titans poster is way in the background, and it’s too out of focus to really make anything out. As for the Lantern, we can only see the title clearly. Still, it’s a pretty cool little easter egg for us fans to notice.

Check them out! As per usual, click to enlarge!

The Batman vs. Superman billboard

Just above the BOX SETS sign, you can see the posters

Bottom of Lantern on the left side, Full sized Titans behind Afroman’s head

Another view of the Titans poster, behind Will Smith

Very cool stuff. Too bad the posters are a fake, because I’m sure some people would love to see these movies.

- Jeff Heimbuch

ComingSoon have posted a list of the seven films that remain in contention for the Achievement in Visual Effects for the 80th Academy Awards. On Wednesday, January 16, members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch will watch a 15 minute excerpt from each film, and then nominate three who will go forward for the final consideration. Here they are:

The Golden Compass

Transformers

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

The Bourne Ultimatum

Evan Almighty

300

I Am Legend

I Am legend surprised many people when it had the biggest opening weekend for a movie in December, beating the likes of The Lord Of The Rings, King Kong and the first Narnia flick. The movie had continued its success worldwide and has pulled in $335 million so far. Now if The Golden Compass made these numbers, what do you think would happen? A meeting would be held the following Monday and a sequel would be the main topic of conversation. That is not necessarily the case with I Am Legend, however cogs are beginning to turn at Warner Brothers. According to ShockTillYouDrop author Richard Matheson has signed off the sequel rights. Matheson wrote the original 1954 novel upon which I Am Legend film is based. This doesn’t mean a sequel has got the green light, it simply means that if Warner Brothers decided to make another movie to get some extra cash, they could do.

Personally, I think I Am Legend should stay as a standalone film. Will Smith was a huge factor as to why the movie has done so well, and the chances of him returning are slim. What do you think about having another film? Yay or Nay?

I wasn’t kidding about what I said in that Sweeney post, was I?

The opening scene for I Am Legend has appeared online. ‘Opening scene’ is a bunch of crap, though, because I highly doubt the movie opens just like that. I’m sure there is something before it.

Anyway, check it out at (where else) Yahoo Movies.

- Jeff Heimbuch