Sequels of “I Am Legend” With Will Smith & Michael B. Jordan & “Constantine” With Keanu Reeves in The Works
Two sequels to two very distinct but potent films are coming to Warner Bros. Deadline reports that Akiva Goldsman has inked a multi-year first-look deal with the studio and sequels to I Am Legend and Constantine are a part of the deal.
Warner Bros Pictures co-chairs De Luca and Abdy said this of the veteran Goldsman in a joint statement: “[Akiva] is a consummate producer, a brilliant writer, and a kind and generous human being. We’ve both known and worked with Akiva for years, and never cease to be amazed by his combination of filmmaking mettle and limitless imagination. We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome him back to the Warner Bros. family, where he has delivered some of the Studio’s most successful and acclaimed projects of the past two decades.”
Goldsman is getting the ball rolling with three massive stars in Smith, Jordan, and Reeves. Here’s what Goldsman said in a statement:
“We’re starting with two projects that are fun and very much Warners; the sequel to I Am Legend, with Will and Michael B. Jordan, and the sequel to Constantine with Keanu Reeves that Francis Lawrence is going to direct. So I’m coming out of the gate fast. We’re doing it with JJ Abrams, and Francis and Keanu and I have been pretty deep in the story-breaking stage.”
Reeves will be reprising the role of demonologist and supernatural exorcist John Constantine that he first played in the 2005 original. Goldsman told Deadline that Reeves has been saying for years that John Constantine was a character he wanted to return to. “Finally, he said it enough times that it stuck,” Goldsman told Deadline. The sequel will expand on the themes explored in the 2005 film, with Constantine fighting to secure the barrier between earth and the evil creatures that are on the other side.
“The character is very much Keanu and the way he and Francis saw the world of good and evil, and the wonderful and authentic noir where there is a world behind the world of good and evil coexist with our world right up close,” Goldsman told Deadline. “Beyond that, we are still discovering it as I am writing the script.”
As for the I Am Legend sequel, Goldsman is staying mum on how Michael B. Jordan factors into the new film, which follows Smith playing the last man on earth fighting a plague of vampires. He did say, however, that the sequel will utilize themes explored in Richard Matheson’s novel, upon which the first film was based. He also revealed the sequel will begin decades after the 2007 film, and added he’s obsessed with HBO’s stellar zombie series The Last Of Us, which depicts a world decades after the apocalypse.
“You see how the earth reclaims the world, and there’s something beautiful in the question of, as man steps away from being the primary tenant, what happens? That will be especially visual in New York,” Goldsman told Deadline about his I Am Legend sequel. “I don’t know if they’ll climb up to the empire state building, but the possibilities are endless. We trace back to the original Matheson book, and the alternate ending as opposed to the released ending in the original film. What Matheson was talking about was that man’s time on the planet as the dominant species had come to an end. That’s a really interesting thing we’re going to get to explore. There will be a little more fidelity to the original text.”
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Featured image: ROME – FEBRUARY 10: Actor Keanu Reeves attends a photocall to promote his new movie “Constantine” at the St. Regis Rome Grand Hotel on February 10, 2005 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Keanu Reeves
