Recently, MGM execs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy signed film and television partnerships with Akiva Goldsman’s production business Weed Road. However, Weed Road has since gone to Warner Bros. to help the studio increase its output of cinematic franchises. According to Deadline, Warner Bros. and Weed Road have agreed to a multi-year first look deal. Given that Goldsman has done a lot of work for the studio over the years, he views this agreement as somewhat of a homecoming.
The firms’ top priorities now that Weed Road is a Warner Bros. property are two projects they were already collaborating on: sequels to the 2005 comic book adaptation of Constantine (which Goldsman produced) and the 2007 adaptation of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend (which Goldsman produced and co-wrote).
Goldsman told Deadline, “We’re starting with two projects that are fun and very much Warners; the sequel to I Am Legend, with Will Smith 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 (the Constantine sequel) with JJ Abrams, and Francis and Keanu and I have been pretty deep in the story breaking stage.“
Goldsman is writing the screenplay for the Constantine sequel and is producing the film alongside JJ Abrams and Hannah Minghella. Lorenzo DiBonaventura and Erwin Stoff serve as executive producers. Reeves is reprising the role of supernatural exorcist and demonologist John Constantine, who in the original is dying but stays around to save his soul by keeping demons from hell from breaching earth. He also gets between a battle between the archangel Gabriel and Lucifer. The new film expands on the themes the original brought, about maintaining the barrier between earth and the evil creatures that are on the other side.
Goldsman wouldn’t share any details about the role Michael B. Jordan will be playing in the I Am Legend sequel, but he did say, “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.“
De Luca and Abdy said Goldsman 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.“
Are you happy to hear that the Constantine and I Am Legend sequels will be produced by Warner Bros. and Weed Road? By posting a comment below, let us know what you think about this story.
In 2006, I saw Constantine just once, and I don’t really remember it. I’m happy that Keanu Reeves will be able to reprise the role, though, as he wanted to. The Last Man on Earth, a 1964 Vincent Price movie, is still the most faithful adaptation we’ve ever seen, so I’m also happy to hear that the I Am Legend sequel would have “greater adherence to the original text.” Matheson’s story is fantastic. (The Omega Man, a 1971 Charlton Heston movie, was also inspired by the book.)
