I AM LEGEND's Writer & Director Consider THE WORLD WITHOUT US...

Merrick here...
Mark Protosevich and Francis Lawrence (respectively the writer and director of I AM LEGEND) are looking at the end of the world from a different perspective via their adaptation of Alan Weisman's book THE WORLD WITHOUT US (HERE).

The book, a best-seller and a critical favorite, took on the idea of life on Earth if humans were suddenly to disappear. The book explored how edifices and houses would deteriorate, how long and which man-made objects would linger and last, the environmental impact nuclear waste and other pollutants would have left unchecked and how nature would spread over built environments. Fox is not aiming to make a documentary but rather a fictional feature buttressed by the book's science. It would, for example, show an event that would lead to man's disappearance.

...says THIS REPORT in Hollywood Reporter. Similar subject matter was recently addressed somewhat chillingly in The History Channel's LIFE AFTER PEOPLE special. It's...haunting. The show asks the question: what would happen if every person on Earth simply disappeared all at once? It follows (and vividly illustrates via effects, etc.) subsequent events in great detail - from the surprisingly fast shut down of unmaintained power grids, the adaptation and/or sad fate of our housepets, the rapid encroachment of wildlife and unchecked greenery, addresses the how & why of building decay/collapse, and explains what little might be left to show future visitors that we were once here...once alive...and sometimes great. LIFE AFTER PEOPLE spanned hundreds (maybe thousands- I can't remember) of years. If you haven't seen it & this sounds compelling to you, you can find it HERE. OR, below, there's some nifty embeds of the same material for your consideration... I'm not sure how this kind of material can be adapted into a dramatic, non-documentary format. But, having a sense of how it all works from the History Channel piece, I can imagine a feature film being quite a gut punch if they find the right angle...