The Untold Truth Of I Am Legend
After shutting down a Manhattan street and dealing with reshoots just weeks before release, "I Am Legend" went from a hopeless production stuck in development hell to a global box office smash.
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00:00After shutting down a Manhattan street and dealing with reshoots just weeks before release,
00:06I Am Legend went from a hopeless production stuck in development hell to a global box
00:11office smash.
00:13Though many may now associate the title I Am Legend with Will Smith being the last man
00:17on Earth, this story far predates its 2007 release or even Will Smith's 1990s ascent
00:23to movie star status.
00:24I Am Legend is based on the 1954 Richard Matheson novel of the same name and is the
00:30third and most recent adaptation of the book.
00:33Following the release of The Omega Man in 1971, Hollywood spent years trying to develop
00:38a new adaptation of Matheson's novel, and they got close to doing so in the 1990s.
00:43According to Variety, this 90s version of I Am Legend was set to feature Arnold Schwarzenegger
00:48navigating a post-apocalyptic landscape.
00:50Weirdly, Scott was brought on to direct in what would have been an epic first collaboration
00:55between the two.
00:56The project progressed quite far along, to the point that makeup tests were done for
01:00the film's vampire creatures.
01:02Sadly, the production eventually fell apart due to an assortment of issues, the most prominent
01:06of which were budgetary concerns.
01:08Scott was struggling to achieve box office hits in the mid-1990s, and I Am Legend is
01:13a dark, depressing story that's anything but a sure thing for a film studio looking to
01:18earn back profits.
01:20Warner Bros. halted the project, so this version of I Am Legend went cold.
01:24Though disappointing for all involved in this incarnation of the film, it did pave the way
01:28for a different I Am Legend to get launched into the stratosphere a decade later.
01:33Once Francis Lawrence's film debuted in 2007, the long journey to produce a new adaptation
01:38of Matheson's classic finally came to a satisfying end.
01:43By the time 2005 rolled around, I Am Legend had been through the ringer.
01:47Not only had Ridley Scott's version of the film failed to come to fruition, but another
01:51incarnation had also fizzled out.
01:53The 2002 version was supposed to be directed by Michael Bay, produced by Arnold Schwarzenegger,
01:59and star Will Smith.
02:00After a while, it just seemed like I Am Legend was doomed to be a cursed, unmade blockbuster.
02:05But Warner Bros. was determined to get this production off the ground, and not let a potential
02:11star vehicle for Smith go to waste.
02:13So the studio pressed on, and Francis Lawrence became the latest filmmaker to take a swing
02:18at the property in September 2005.
02:21Before his work on The Hunger Games, Lawrence didn't have a lengthy feature film track record,
02:25as did the other directors previously attached to I Am Legend.
02:29But earlier that same year, he'd helmed Constantine for Warner Bros.
02:33Needless to say, the studio was very excited about his prospects as an artist.
02:37The plan was to start filming in 2006, but given all the false starts that I Am Legend
02:42had faced up to this point, it would have been understandable to greet this news with
02:46skepticism.
02:47Amazingly, though, Lawrence did end up directing the feature, and for this once-tormented film,
02:52that was something of a miracle.
02:54Although post-apocalyptic movies have been made since the invention of cinema, the subjects
02:58of these films often change with the times to reflect the political and social climate
03:03of the era.
03:04The 2000s saw a resurgence of apocalyptic films about viruses that turn humans into
03:08terrifying creatures, with the release of movies like Resident Evil in 2002 and The
03:13Dawn of the Dead remake in 2004.
03:15I Am Legend rode that wave of interest to massive box office profits.
03:20But while it may have been one of the most successful post-apocalyptic movies ever, it
03:25still faced some competition from other 2000s films.
03:29In fact, I Am Legend's screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman, has discussed how Danny Boyle's
03:332002 zombie flick 28 Days Later proved influential on how he would navigate the approach to a
03:38post-apocalyptic world.
03:40Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Goldsman notes how he wanted to take on the script
03:44for I Am Legend, but it seemed like the existence of 28 Days Later would stop I Am Legend from
03:49happening since it would tread too much familiar ground.
03:52That's why he and Lawrence set out to differentiate I Am Legend from Boyle's beloved feature.
03:57They decided to make something that was more about characters and emotions than monsters,
04:03and changed the setting from L.A. to New York City.
04:05In the end, in this moment of 2000s global cinema, there was plenty of room for two post-apocalyptic
04:12thrillers.
04:13Will Smith has built his career and iconic persona through his natural rapport with seemingly
04:19every actor that he's shared the screen with.
04:21Whether it's Tommy Lee Jones in The Men in Black movies, Kevin James in Hitch, or Martin
04:26Lawrence in Bad Boys, Smith can be compelling with anyone and everyone, including dogs.
04:31As we see in I Am Legend,
04:33If you're planning a party or something, just tell me now, okay?
04:37Because, you know, I don't like surprises, and I swear I'll act surprising.
04:42This gift meant that I Am Legend was a unique challenge for Smith, who plays the last man
04:47on Earth unable to lean on that entertaining chemistry he often sparks up with others.
04:51Talking to Collider, Smith noted that part of how he prepared to play this character
04:55so outside of his comfort zone was by talking to people who've experienced extreme cases
05:00of isolation, like former prisoners of war and people who have been in solitary confinement.
05:05Talking to them revealed very specific details of the psychology of isolated people.
05:10Smith embraced the absence of dialogue for much of the film, which allowed him to subtly
05:15communicate a sense of one man doing his best to defend himself both physically and psychologically.
05:21By accepting such brutal qualities tied to this character, Smith was able to deliver
05:25a performance unlike any other in his filmography.
05:29While I Am Legend used its share of green screen and practically built sets, the majority
05:33of the movie was shot where the story of this film adaptation takes place, New York City.
05:38You can't fake New York, Montreal, Toronto, I don't care where you go, New York is the
05:45best backdrop in the world, bar none.
05:47The general hustle and bustle of America's most populous city make it a logistical nightmare
05:51for any movie to shoot there, let alone one where there's only supposed to be a single
05:56human being left alive.
05:58This required sections of the city to be closed down, so the I Am Legend crew could film in
06:03this location and make it look appropriately sparse.
06:06As one can imagine, this did not go off without a hitch, with Will Smith recounting to the
06:13Los Angeles Times that he encountered plenty of frustrated New Yorkers whilst he was filming
06:18this blockbuster.
06:19He joked,
06:20"...people were not happy.
06:21That's the most middle fingers I've ever gotten in my career."
06:24Though the process encountered its fair share of criticism and hurdles, Francis Lawrence
06:28remained committed to filming I Am Legend on location, including the Brooklyn Bridge,
06:33where he managed to capture a lengthy and complicated set piece.
06:37The result is that the world of I Am Legend has a tangible quality to it.
06:42Rather than coming off as otherworldly, there is a haunting relatability to the environments
06:46that the surviving characters navigate.
06:48All of the challenges presented in filming a story as sparse as I Am Legend in New York
06:52City paid off handsomely with this kind of quality ingrained into the movie.
06:58Reshoots are common on films of any size, but they're especially prevalent in blockbusters.
07:04Sometimes you just don't know how a movie is coming together until you see it in the
07:07editing room.
07:08Usually, such reshoots are done a few months before release to allow enough time for the
07:12post-production team to work on these sequences.
07:14It's rarer, though not unprecedented, for a film of I Am Legend's stature to commence
07:19reshoots just weeks away from its theatrical release.
07:23And that's just what this costly production did, with outlets like Slashfilm reporting
07:27in mid-November 2007 that Warner Bros. had just wrapped up reshoots on I Am Legend, which
07:33was set for a December release.
07:35At the time, rumors spread that the studio didn't like the initial gloomy ending to the
07:39movie and asked for reshoots of the finale.
07:42The original ending of I Am Legend forced both Smith's protagonist, Richard, as well
07:47as the audience to question who the real monster is in this story.
07:50But this got swapped out for a more generic showdown between good and evil.
07:54This newer, more Hollywood ending robbed I Am Legend of a compelling moral ambiguity,
07:59while the way it feels so shoehorned into the story can also be attributed to the fact
08:03that it was executed during these incredibly last-minute reshoots.
08:07I Am Legend was an undisputed hit at the box office, but critically, the results were more
08:13mixed.
08:14Lawrence received universal praise for Will Smith's performance and how well he carried
08:17so much of the film on his own, in addition to the well-realized sparseness of a haunting
08:22post-apocalyptic New York City landscape.
08:24However, there were equally rampant critiques over the conventional nature of the finale
08:29and the heavy reliance on CGI to create the Night Seeker monsters.
08:33The latter complaint was even shared by the director, who discussed his feelings in an
08:37interview while looking back on the film.
08:39According to Den of Geek in 2011, Lawrence noted that he initially tried to portray the
08:43Night Seekers with humans in prosthetics, but that approach didn't translate to screen,
08:48so he went the CGI route instead.
08:50But the CGI used to realize these characters never looked quite right, which was the result
08:55of a compressed post-production schedule.
08:57Lawrence did feel that with more time dedicated to fine-tuning the CGI, these visual effects
09:02would have looked satisfactory.
09:04But in the final cut, they never looked quite right, and Lawrence noted to Den of Geek that
09:08One of the big downfalls for me with I Am Legend personally was with the visual effects.
09:14He also observed that the scariest scenes in I Am Legend were those that took cues from
09:18the likes of Alien and kept everything shrouded in shadows.
09:22Once the creatures were totally visible, the suspense was lost.
09:26Even if I Am Legend didn't quite click together, at least its director could be open about
09:31these shortcomings.
09:32Believe it or not, I Am Legend wasn't just a box office hit in its initial theatrical
09:36run.
09:38It was a record-breaking success.
09:39The film managed to open to $77 million in its first three days of domestic play, cementing
09:45it as the biggest opening weekend ever for a December release at the time.
09:49It was also the biggest opening weekend ever for a Will Smith title, an impressive feat
09:53given just how many massive films he'd been associated with during his career up to that
09:57point.
09:58I'm getting good.
09:59In the years since I Am Legend premiered, it still stands as one of Smith's biggest
10:04North American openings.
10:05Only Suicide Squad in 2016 and Aladdin in 2019 managed to score larger returns domestically.
10:12I Am Legend's box office feats were all the more impressive, given that this wasn't a
10:17sequel in a successful franchise.
10:19In a year where Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Spider-Man all delivered third installments,
10:24I Am Legend was a reminder that original films could excel financially.
10:28Once the dust settled, I Am Legend scored $256.3 million in North America.
10:34That was enough to make it the sixth-biggest title of 2007 at the domestic box office,
10:39putting it ahead of big sequels like The Bourne Ultimatum and National Treasure Book of Secrets.
10:43The film performed even better globally and took in $329.1 million worldwide, which brought
10:50its total box office profits to a whopping $585.5 million.
10:55These accomplishments all made I Am Legend truly legendary when it came to box office
11:01performance.
11:02In October 2014, Deadline broke the news that Warner Bros. was now moving forward on
11:07a reboot of I Am Legend, one based on an unrelated spec script entitled A Garden at the End of
11:12the World.
11:13The script, which was described as The Searchers, told through a sci-fi lens, had enough overlapping
11:19elements with I Am Legend to make it work as a reboot of the 2007 film.
11:23The most interesting wrinkle here was the presence of Will Smith, or rather, the lack
11:28thereof.
11:29This new reboot was being configured from the get-go to not include him.
11:32At the time, Smith's reluctance to do sequels inspired the producers to opt for a new story
11:37with different characters rather than try and court him.
11:40The lack of Smith suggested that this reboot would be going in wildly different directions
11:45compared to the original I Am Legend, though audiences would never get to know what the
11:49plans were, as the project ended up fizzling out as well.
11:52Even though we may have thought all hope was lost for an I Am Legend sequel, the plucky
11:57one-film franchise refuses to die.
12:00An I Am Legend sequel was announced in 2022, starring Smith once again alongside Michael
12:06B. Jordan.