I Am Legend is an upcoming 2007 American post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It is the fourth film adaptation of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I Am Legend, following The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971) and the straight to video I Am Omega (2007). Smith plays Robert Neville, possibly Earth’s only survivor of a man-made virus.

He works to create a cure but is stalked by nocturnal mutant survivors of the plague. Warner Bros. Pictures began developing I Am Legend in 1994, and various actors and directors were attached to the project, though it did not enter production due to budgetary concerns.

I Am Legend entered production in 2006 in New York City, filming mainly on location in the city including a $5 million scene at the Brooklyn Bridge, the most expensive scene filmed in the city to date. For the film, Warner Bros. launched a tie-in comic and an online multiplayer game on Second Life as part of its marketing campaign. I Am Legend is scheduled to be released December 14, 2007.

A man-made virus called “KV” wipes out the population of New York City in 2009, leaving virologist Robert Neville (Will Smith) the last human survivor in the city and possibly the world. Neville lives alone for three years, attempting to contact and find other possible survivors. He is watched by nocturnal mutant victims of the plague. Neville was the indirect cause of the fall of man: his government-funded research helped spread the virus, and he now works to redeem himself for this folly by working to find a cure. Naturally immune, Neville realizes that two percent of the human race must also be immune.

Nevertheless, many of them were killed by the infected, who became cannibalistic. Neville finds himself outnumbered by the infected and running out of time.

Will Smith signed on to play Robert Neville in April 2006. He said he took on I Am Legend because he felt it could be like “Gladiator [or] Forrest Gump — these are movies with wonderful, audience-pleasing elements but also uncompromised artistic value. [This] always felt like it had those possibilities to me.” The actor found Neville to be his toughest acting challenge since portraying Muhammad Ali in Ali (2001). He said that “when you’re on your own, it is kind of hard to find conflict.” The film’s dark tone and exploration of whether Neville has gone insane during his isolation meant Smith had to restrain himself from falling into a humorous routine during takes.

To prepare for his role, Smith visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Georgia. He also met with a person who had been in solitary confinement and a former prisoner of war. Smith compared Neville to Job, who lost his children, livelihood and health. Like the Book of Job, I Am Legend studies the questions, “Can he find a reason to continue? Can he find the hope or desire to excel and advance in life? Or does the death of everything around him create imminent death for himself?” He also cited an influence in Tom Hanks’ performance in Cast Away (2000).

Abbey, a three-year-old German Shepherd, played Neville’s dog. Another dog was used for scenes where Neville plays fetch with his companion, as Abbey refused to perform these scenes. The rest of the supporting cast consists of Salli Richardson as Ginny, Robert’s wife, and Alice Braga as a character named Anna. Willow Smith, Will Smith’s daughter, makes her film debut as Marley, Neville’s daughter.

I Am Legend was originally slated for a November 21, 2007 release in the United States and Canada, but the release has been delayed to December 14, 2007. The film will open on December 21, 2007 in the United Kingdom.

In December 2007, China banned the release of American films in the country, which is believed to have delayed the release of I Am Legend. Will Smith spoke to the chairman of China Film Group about securing a release date, later explaining, “We struggled very, very hard to try to get it to work out, but there are only a certain amount of foreign films that are allowed in.”
A tie-in comic from DC Comics and Vertigo Comics will be released with I Am Legend. The project draws upon collaboration from Bill Sienkiewicz, screenwriter Mark Protosevich, and author Orson Scott Card. The son of the original book’s author, Richard Christian Matheson, also collaborated on the project.

The project will advance from the comic to an online format in which animated featurettes will be shown on the official website. The comic is due out in November. In October 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures launched the online multiplayer game I Am Legend: Survival in the virtual world Second Life. The game is the largest launched in the virtual world in support of a film release, permitting people to play against each other as the infected or the uninfected across a replicated 60 acres of New York City.

The studio also hired the ad agency Crew Creative to develop a website that would be specifically viewable on Apple’s iPhone. Sequel The original screenwriter of I Am Legend, Mark Protosevich, pitched the idea of a sequel to Warner Bros., though a deal has not been finalized.