Akiva Goldsman and his Weed Road banner are returning to Warner Bros.
In a statement made by Warner Bros., the studio called Goldsman "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."
Goldsman also commented on the news, saying that "the lion's share of my career was at Warners; I spent close to 20 years or more. It's a homecoming and I get to work with Mike and Pam and Jesse [Ehrman], who I've known since he started at Warner Bros."
He added, "We're starting with two projects that are fun and very much Warners; the sequel to I Am Legend, with Will 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 it with JJ Abrams, and Francis and Keanu and I have been pretty deep in the story breaking stage."
The original "Constantine" film debuted in 2005, earning over $280 million at the worldwide box office.
"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," said Goldsman.
"I Am Legend" dropped in 2007, grossing over $535 million at the worldwide box office. Goldsman spoke about that sequel as well.
"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."
