Apparently the new post-apocalyptic Will Smith film “I Am Legend” had to get snapped back into production to redo the ending. The folks over at Latino Review give us this:
It looks like the powers-that-be over at Warner Bros. were unhappy with the ending of I Am Legend and have just finished reshoots late last week to fix that problem – says CHUD. What’s the changes? Who knows…since this movie has been in development since 1994 at Warner Bros., who knows how many times this flick has been written and rewritten.
The first gut reaction to news like this is “Oh no… this film must be a mess if they decide last minute that the ending sucked and they had to change it”… but it’s hard to do that because we all really wish George Lucas had that same idea when looking at the finished version of Jar Jar Binks. Oh that George only said “Yeah, we’re getting close to the release date… but Jar Jar didn’t turn out nearly as well as I had hoped so let’s do some re-shoots and take him out of the film”. That would have been glorious.
So who knows… we’ll have to wait to see the film. If you like the ending, then dumping the original ending and re-shooting it was genius. If the ending sucks, then we can all complain again about how studios shouldn’t step in to make changes.
Reply to Dan:
Movies missing basic details like the electric power and other similar items just drives me crazy too.
Not everyone in society has a technical background, but not everyone is stupid either.
Most movies seem to generally assume the viewer is stupid.
I went and saw the movie last night and I thought it was pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. I was impressed with Will Smith’s acting. It’s not easy to carry off a role where, for the most part, you’re THE only guy on screen. I thought he did a very good job of getting me to feel the acute lonliness that someone in his situation would feel. Having several pets myself, I almost shed a tear when he had to kill his dog because it had become infected and was about to turn into a zombie too. And the visual special effects were outstanding, even if the faces and jaws of the zombies themselves were a bit too maleable.
But there were quite a few gaps in logic that diminished my enjoyment of the movie a bit. For one, I guess there must have been some survivors down at Con Edison too, because the electrical power to his apartment sure seems reliable. Also, since all of the bridges to Manhattan Island were destroyed by the government to try and contain the spread of the infection, how did the woman and her son get their vehicle, a sparkling new range rover, onto the island? I guess Smith’s character must’ve worked in a steel mill earlier in life, owing to the precision of the heavy metal shutters that he’s constructed and hung throughout his home to protect himself from the zombies at night. There’s more, but you get the idea. Maybe I’m just a bit too anal, but I notice those kinds of things.
But overall, this movie is fun and will scare the crap out of you a couple of times. The director, whoever he is, does a very good job of building suspense, making you think that something is about to happen but it doesn’t. Then when you’ve let your guard down a bit, BAM! It was definitely worth the $8 I paid to see it and I’ll probably get the DVD when it comes out.
He said “The cure is in the blood” The end still was not very good. I never read the book maybe the movie followed the book ending? And if it did they ruined the movie! The film had some awesome parts and could have been great. They just needed to tie the ending up with more vitual clearity( We wanted to see NY cleaned up and everything getting back to normal)maybe a 10 year flash forward or something. But as it ended up I left wanting there to be more to it. I felt like i got ripped off.
The movie was ok. I left feeling empty as if there should have been more. The ending of the movie was to short and they did’t tie everything up nice and neat. They just kinda left a mess!
What was the whole thing with the vial of blood and he said his blood wasn’t the cure? Didn’t understand.
I liked the movie. But I think the ending was fucked up
Keith Battista – You saw some of the location shoot? That’s pretty cool. I wonder how the ‘cg zombies’ are gonna look in the film?
I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks.
I’ve been a big fan of this film from day 1 but the more I see bad CG zombies running around after Will Smith the more I’m losing faith in this film and now that they’re changing the ending — AGAIN! I’ve almost lost all my hope that this will be the version to get it right. I’m almost wishing they would have gone with the grey headed 70’s fros like the last version with Charleston Heston.
thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful…
That’s funny they’re reshooting the ending. See, my dad’s a teamster and worked on this movie. My three friends and I even went in one day to Manhattan to visit the set. (First of all, the crew was rude – especially the AD who kicked my friends and me out complaining that we were there “all day.” Luckily, my dad and the producer became friends during the shoot and threatened the AD that he would tell the producer of this. The AD quickly became nice and set up a monitor for my friend and I to watch as they were shooting some scenes. the scenes we saw shot are actually in the trailer, where it’s very dark and it’s just a close up of will smith with his gun and flashlight close up to his face). ANYWAYS…
Yeah it’s funny that they have to reshoot the ending because, at the end of the day of my visit on the set, my dad had to drive the script girl back to her apartment (my dad’s a driver) and she was talking about how they had to change the ending of the original script at the last minute during principal photography because they didn’t like the original ending.
So technically, this is the THIRD time they’re trying to get the ending right… To be honest, from my experience on the set it seemed like no one had any clue what they were doing, or at least were winging it. Winging it is cool and fine and can be good, but it also can be very bad.
Get this! (one last thing) Originally the “infected” were simply going to be real people, not computer animated. They did a big scene where the infected were running. The extras had to shave their heads for this, and there were like 1000 of them for this shot. Watching the dailys the filmmakers were like “uh, this doesn’t look good” and so they change it from real people to computer animated. imaging shaving your head for no reason? including if you were a girl?
Purchasing the rights to I Am Legend and changing the ending is about as stupid as adapting Jaws and leaving out the shark. That said, I’d love to see this creative team take a chance on a remake of Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl, with new improved ending!
Alfredo – Thanks! Vincent Price totally rocked out in it!
Kristina – I don’t blame Mr. Smith. I suspect the studio didn’t want audiences to see him have an ending like the book. I guess we’ll see!
With the writers strike on, I reckon maybe the brave men at warner just wrote it themselves striking fear into the writers guild and forcing them back to the table.. I forsee the ending going something like this.
*BOOK SPOILER*
book: robert neville “I am legend”, kills himself.
film: Will Smith stands over the last remaining vampire with a shotgun in his hands. He fires and blows the creatures head off whilst shouting “I AM LEGEND!!…. Mutherf’cker”
Thats the way I see it going anyway :D
Maybe what Andrew meant was – if there is a writer’s strike how could they reshoot a new ending unless:
a) multiple endings are already written
b) the ending has not been changed but reshot and/or re-editted for better flow/clarity.
Endings are reshot all the time, for various reasons, but usually due to someone being unhappy with it. But hearing about reshoots usually isnt a RED FLAG to me. Now the studio holding back on press screenings is.
Hey John,
Does this mean that the release of I Am Legend is going to be delayed, and if so, for how long?
I smell Happy Ending coming.
i doon if i like to change the ending this late in the game is kinda consuring butiam still looking forward to this move i think everthing in the traiers look promising.
The new ending – it was all a dream brought about by Will Smith’s fears of a future world where the WGA earns so much from residuals that carpenters and waiters start getting them too and the world falls into economic collapse.
Smith wakes up and tells the audience what a silly idea this strike was in the first place;)
@Kristina
How do you know Will caused the change?
I just KNEW that they wouldn’t keep the original ending of the book. KNEW IT. Is Will Smith determined to rape all sci-fi literature?
Yo David! Props for having seen the Vincent Price movie.
Any who this might not be a bad thing the movie The Natural was changed and the ending to that movie awesome.
Yoosa people gonna be hapee hapee. Meesa Jar Jar eesa in thisa movie. Mees Jar Jar eesa Willa Smith sidekick. Yay!
I’m a long-time fan of the book and I was wondering if they’d keep the original ending…it would be awesome, but kinda a ‘downer’ for today’s audiences. I’m curious to see it though.
If you want to see a GREAT film adaptation of the ‘I Am Legend’ novel, I suggest you check out Vincent Price in ‘The Last Man On Earth’ (they changed the name for the movie). It’s a near-perfect film version of the story. Surprisingly, I saw it for the first time last night and loved it.
Sorry but minor or major spoilers ahead to make my comment.
I have read the full book and just seen the trailer and the trailer has nothing off what the book has in it, i.e. the dog that is in it that was in the book for a chapter and then dies. But the ending isnt a very good ending to have in a film that is simple as it is.
The only way that it could be improved is by including more fighting in the final scence becuase the whole film doesnt have that much of it in it.
Overall i think this film is going to suck major