Akiva Goldsman Talks ‘Constantine’ and ‘I Am Legend’ Sequels

Business-heavy tales about producers renewing the offers with studios don’t often supply up too many attention-grabbing nuggets of news. But when that filmmaker is Akiva Goldsman, and he’s concerned with two massive franchises in ‘Constantine’ and ‘I Am Legend’––and is joyful to speak about them––that’s a distinct state of affairs.

So with Goldsman’s Weed Road firm returning to Warner Bros. (which is sort of news in itself given the corporate’s current spherical of cost-cutting and tax write-offs), there’s an replace on each the comedian ebook adaptation starring Keanu Reeves and the post-apocalyptic thriller that, seemingly towards the chances given how the primary film ended, seems set to return Will Smith to screens.

Related Article: Keanu Reeves Back For a ‘Constantine’ Sequel

What’s the newest on ‘Constantine’s sequel?

2005’s ‘Constantine’ introduced the character first created by Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette, Rick Veitch, and John Totleben (and developed by Garth Ennis and Jamie Delano’s ‘Hellblazer’ comics) to screens.

He’s as supernatural exorcist and demonologist, and one thing of a detective, although his private life is a multitude and his private grooming leaves one thing to be desired.

In the film, Reeves’ Constantine is approached by Detective Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) who wants his assist to show that her twin sister Isabel’s (additionally Weisz) demise was not a suicide. As he appears into Isabel’s demise, he realizes demons try to interrupt by means of to the human world, and his battles lead him into the center of a battle between the Angel Gabriel (Tilda Swinton) and Satan (Peter Stomare).

The sequel, which Goldsman is writing and producing (alongside J.J. Abrams), has Reeves again to star and Francis Lawrence as soon as once more directing. It was introduced final 12 months.

Says Goldman to Deadline in regards to the undertaking,

“This is a credit to Keanu, who endlessly has said, ‘this is the character I want to return to.’ Finally, he said it enough times that it stuck. 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. Beyond that, we are still discovering it as I am writing the script.”

What’s new with the ‘I Am Legend’ sequel?

‘I Am Legend,’ meanwhile, was a 2007 horror action thriller, coincidentally also directed by Lawrence. It adapted Richard Matheson’s much-praised 1954 novel, which posited a world the place a devastating virus had worn out nearly all of humanity and turned the remainder into vampire-like mutants who roam the world on the lookout for victims.

Robert Neville, the main focus of the story, goes on a mission to search out the scientific foundation for the pandemic that precipitated all this, and chronicles his more and more burdened encounters together with his fellow former people.

In the film, Smith performs Neville, who’s a military virologist surviving in a ruined New York and seeking to discover a remedy for the virus that precipitated all the difficulty––which was initially a mutated measles pressure supposed to remedy most cancers. His spouse and daughter died in a helicopter crash as they tried to flee a quarantine of Manhattan and Neville has firm within the form of his German Shepherd canine Sam.

We discovered a couple of potential sequel practically a 12 months in the past, however at that time speculated that it appeared unlikely to star Smith since (spoiler alert) his character appeared to die on the finish, heroically sacrificing his life after lastly discovering a remedy so different survivors (Alice Braga’s Anna and her son, Ethan, performed by Charlie Tahan) could reside.

Yet that was within the cinematic reduce––a later house leisure launch has an alternate the place In the ending that wasn’t included within the theatrical reduce, the zombies go away Smith’s Neville alone as soon as he returns the physique he was testing the remedy on again to them. Smith, Anna and Ethan journey to Vermont to unfold the remedy.

Goldsman, who can also be writing that film (Lawrence just isn’t hooked up to direct, no less than not but), didn’t specify precisely how Smith’s character story would proceed, nor did he supply up any particulars as to how fellow hooked up star Michael B. Jordan would possibly slot in.

Goldsman had this to say in regards to the film,

“This will start a few decades later than the first. “I’m obsessed with ‘The Last of Us,’ where we see the world just post-apocalypse but also after a 20-30-year lapse. 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. 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.”

It’s maybe no shock that the large HBO Max hit online game adaptation can be a touchstone, although the brand new ‘Legend’ has been in growth lengthy earlier than it contaminated the pop cultural consciousness.

We’ll have to attend and see what precisely occurs with the ‘Legend’ follow-up. Given how busy Goldsman is (he additionally juggles time spent engaged on ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ sequence for Paramount+ and a wealth of different initiatives in growth), it might be some time earlier than both film is able to go earlier than cameras. We’d predict that the ‘Constantine’ follow-up can be first.

Other Movies Similar to ‘Constantine’ and ‘I Am Legend:’

Buy ‘Constantine’ Movies On Amazon

Buy ‘I Am Legend’ Movies On Amazon