Back in June, Zahra told you about Will Smith preparing for his role in the upcoming I Am Legend, the latest adaptation of the classic 1954 sci-fi novel by Richard Matheson. Now, Blackfilm.com has a casting update for us, saying that three women will be joining the film.
Salli Richardson, who currently plays Allison Blake on the Sci Fi Channel series Eureka, has been cast as "Ginny," the wife of Smith's character, Robert Neville. Rounding out the family unit will be Smith's real-life daughter, Willow Camille Reign Smith, who will also play his daughter in the film.
Alice Braga, niece of actress Sonia Braga, will play the role of "Anna."
I'm VERY interested in seeing how this project develops. The previous adaptation of the film, by director Ridley Scott was to star Arnold Schwarzenegger, was being developed in the 90s but fell by the wayside for various reasons, including a soaring budget.
I've always enjoyed watching Vincent Price in The Last Man on Earth, and I LOVED The Omega Man with Charlton Heston, both previously adapted from Matheson's novel, but both taking a different take, and both deviating from the source material.
This one, from what it sounds like, will be closer to the novel in concept, and certainly in the title. The casting of Smith is an interesting choice, and Smith has shown that he can do serious drama in the past, and I think he has the necessary personna to be able to play a man isolated from the rest of the world. What I always liked from the novel was that Neville becomes, for lack of a better word, the villain. When he is the last person left not affected by the vampiric virus, and he is able to walk in the daylight and kill vampires in their sleep, to them, he is a being to be feared (hence the title). If done right, I think this will be a fantastic role for Smith.
My hope is that people don't write it off as a Blade rip-off, when really it's Blade that borrowed the concept from Legend, just like Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Boyle's 28 Days Later, among others.
