The Will Smith Movie That Changed Zack Snyder's Career Also Foreshadowed The Director's Highest-Grossing Film

Zack Snyder almost directed Will Smith in a big-budget sci-fi action horror blockbuster, and coincidentally, the final film also contained a nod to what would become Snyder’s highest-grossing movie. Snyder started out directing music videos before graduating to features with his kinetic 2004 remake of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. He went on to direct an R-rated movie adaptation of Watchmen; a gritty Superman reboot, Man of Steel; a cross between heist movie and zombie movie, Army of the Dead; and a two-part Star Wars-inspired sci-fi epic, Rebel Moon.

But before all that, Snyder’s post-Dawn of the Dead career almost took a very different turn. With Dawn of the Dead being both critically acclaimed and a box office success, there was a lot of buzz around Snyder in Hollywood and he was sent a lot of offers for what his second movie could be. His second feature-length directorial effort ended up defining the rest of his filmmaking career, but his second movie could’ve been a very different project if he and Warner Bros. had been on the same page about how to approach it.

Zack Snyder Almost Directed I Am Legend (But Helmed 300 Instead)

Snyder told Joe Rogan that he was up for I Am Legend

When he appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, Snyder revealed that he was considered to direct Will Smith in I Am Legend. Based on Richard Matheson’s novel of the same name (and partly on the previous 1971 film adaptation, The Omega Man), I Am Legend is a post-apocalyptic action thriller in which Smith plays the last man on Earth. The rest of the Earth’s population has been turned into nocturnal mutants by a virus that was initially created to cure cancer. It’s a riveting movie with plenty of post-apocalyptic spectacle.

In the early stages of development, Warner Bros. considered Snyder to direct I Am Legend. Hot off Dawn of the Dead, Snyder would’ve been a great choice to direct the vampire-infested antics of I Am Legend. However, Snyder told Rogan that the studio ended up taking the project in a different direction than he wanted to go with it. Instead, the studio offered him a different tentpole movie to direct – an adaptation of Frank Miller’s comic book 300 – and the rest, of course, is history.

Zack Snyder Directing 300 Was A Much Better Move Than Doing I Am Legend

300 put Snyder on the map as a blockbuster filmmaker

It would’ve been interesting to see what Snyder would’ve done with I Am Legend. Based on the sprinting zombies seen in Dawn of the Dead, Snyder could’ve done wonders with I Am Legend’s mutant-infested set-pieces. But ultimately, Snyder’s I Am Legend might have felt like a retread of Dawn of the Dead. Snyder might’ve gotten stuck in a rut, telling the same action-packed post-apocalyptic survival story over and over again. It was much better for Snyder’s career that he ended up directing 300 instead of I Am Legend.

With its mythic storytelling, its saturated colors, and its super-slow-motion action, 300 introduced all the familiar hallmarks of Snyder’s filmmaking style. It opened him up to tackle more comic book adaptations – which would be the genre where he found the most success – and established his action movie chops. 300 is arguably Snyder’s most influential movie (and it’s also arguably the least divisive one, too). Without 300, Snyder might not have achieved the success he has as a blockbuster auteur.

I Am Legend Is Connected To Another Zack Snyder Movie

I Am Legend’s post-apocalyptic New York features a Batman & Superman poster

The abandoned, post-apocalyptic New York City seen in I Am Legend features a poster for a movie called Batman & Superman. Warner Bros. had plans to feature Batman and Superman in the same movie since before Batman Begins, but the team-up film stalled in development hell for years. The studio included the Batman & Superman poster seen in I Am Legend as an Easter egg. Interestingly, Akiva Goldsman – one of the credited screenwriters on I Am Legend – was tapped by Warner Bros. to write a Batman and Superman movie, so it may have been an homage to his unused script.

Of course, a movie featuring both Batman and Superman would eventually get made under Snyder’s direction. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was the movie that turned Snyder’s Man of Steel universe into a mega-scale, interconnected DC Comics cinematic universe. It ended up becoming Snyder’s highest-grossing film – because putting the two most iconic superheroes in the world in the same movie can’t miss – but it’s also arguably his most divisive work. There’s a lot of Zack Snyder history tied up in I Am Legend.

Source: The Joe Rogan Experience

I Am Legend

Loosely based on Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel of the same name, I Am Legend stars Will Smith as Robert Neville, a virologist who believes himself to be the last human on Earth. After a virus turns most of the world’s population into vampiric creatures known as Darkseekers, Neville finds himself immune. Believing himself to be the last man of Earth, Neville stalks through the ruins of New York, hoping to create an antidote that will save humanity. 

Director

Francis Lawrence

Writers

Akiva Goldsman , Mark Protosevich

Cast

willow smith , Salli Richardson-Whitfield , Will Smith , Alice Braga , Charlie Tahan