I Am Legend is a 2007 post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It is the third feature film adaptation of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel of the same name, following 1964′s The Last Man on Earth and 1971′s The Omega Man.[2] Smith plays virologist Robert Neville, who is immune to a vicious man-made virus originally created to cure cancer. He works to create a remedy while living in Manhattan in 2012, a city inhabited by violent victims of the virus. The film’s plot is an example of a “Last Man on Earth” story.