Another tentpole is the sequel to I Am Legend, the 2007 film that grossed $585 million worldwide. Studio has been trying to crack it for years, and Goldsman would not say how Jordan fits into the last-man-on-earth storyline, but said the film will lean into the Richard Matheson novel the original was based on.

“This will start a few decades later than the first,” he said. “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.”

Will Smith shared new details about “I Am Legend 2,” which he stars in and produces alongside Michael B. Jordan, on Saturday night at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The upcoming sequel is based on the alternate ending used in the 2007 post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie’s DVD release, rather than its theatrical version, in which his character dies, according to Smith.

Smith, who is one of a number of Hollywood A-list star guests at the third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival, also discussed “Bad Boys 4”, where he and co-star Martin Lawrence will reprise their roles in the earlier sequels of the original 1995 hit detective movie.

“I have a call with Michael B. Jordan tomorrow. We’re really close, script just came in,” Smith said of “I Am Legend 2” at one of the festival’s In Conversation events. “You have to be a real ‘I Am Legend’ buff to know this, but in the first, theatrical version, my character dies, but on the DVD there was an alternate version of the ending where my character lived. We are going with the mythology of the DVD version. I can’t tell you anything more, but Michael B. Jordan is in.”

EXCLUSIVE: I Am Legend screenwriter and producer Akiva Goldsman teased yesterday there would be big news soon relating to the Warner Bros sequel with Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan, and what we hear is that the studio is taking an interest in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts filmmaker Steven Caple Jr. to direct.

Note it’s very early, and there haven’t been any deal papers drafted yet. Warners has met with a handful of directors, but the hope here is a reteam between Jordan and his Creed II director Caple Jr. I Am Legend 2, which we first told you about, would rep the first time that Smith and Jordan have starred together on-screen.

Goldsman at Comic-Con yesterday said that he had already cracked a second draft for I Am Legend 2 after meeting with Jordan and Smith.

“The world returns in a way that is kind of spectacular – an exciting playground for all of us – not your father’s I Am Legend,” teased the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind scribe.

Goldsman also added that the sequel would pick up after the alternative ending to the Francis Lawrence directed $585.4M-plus grossing 2007 movie where Smith’s character lives and humanity in a zombie ruled world doesn’t go so well.