I am Legend…third attempt

IamLegend.jpgThe book I am Legend by Richard Matheson is something I keep meaning to turn to but haven’t yet, it’s a story we’re all familiar with and Cinematical tells us why…

The first one, the solid 1964 Vincent Price movie The Last Man On Earth, was in black-and-white, so naturally, it cannot be very good, at least in the eyes of the younger audiences to whom a remake would appeal most. And the second one? Well, the mangled and dated 1971 Charlton Heston version, The Omega Man — it had albino mutant chicks with afros (say no more). This one will be directed by Constantine helmer Francis Lawrence, and is expected to start shooting in 2006 for a 2007 release. The movie has not yet been cast, though both Will Smith and Arnold Schwarzenegger have been attached to the project in the past.

I have to say I liked The Omega Man, but since then my views of Heston have changed somewhat and the political ideals behind the film have made me think twice about it. However I think this could really deserve a movie that’s more honourable to its source material than Omega.

As always Cinematical have some interesting insight into the story of this movie, one that’s been dogged by delayed production again and again.

The long, strange trip it’s been from page to screen is documented in The Greatest Science Fiction Movies Never Made (along with Tim Burton’s Superman Lives)

What do you think of The Omega Man? What about the source book itself? Does this deserve another movie, is this a cash in deal or an attempt to get a story in front of another generation?

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6 thoughts on “I am Legend…third attempt

  1. WELL, HERE WE GO AGAIN…ANOTHER VERSION OF ONE THE GREATEST

    HORROR/SCIFI NOVELS EVER WRITTEN.

    LET’S GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME, O.K. GUYS!!!

    IT’S SIMPLE:

    A VIRUS DESTROYS THEN REVIVES THE POPULATION…THE SYMPTOMS AND

    BEHAVIOR OF THE INFECTED ARE VERY SIMILAR TO…GULP….VAMPIRES!

    OH MY GOD! THEY ARE VAMPIRES!!! NOT MUTANTS…NOT ALBINOS!!!

    BLOOD DRINKING VAMPIRES!!!!

    YOU’RE THE LAST UNINFECTED MAN ON THE PLANET…ALL THOSE YOU

    TRUSTED….EVERYONE YOU LOVED WANTS YOUR BLOOD! YOU ARE ALONE…

    TRYING TO MAKE A LIFE OUT OF THIS NIGHTMARE….BUT EVERY NIGHT THEY

    COME…THERE IS NO PEACE….YOU ARE ALONE…BUT YOU FIGHT BACK…

    GOD!! EVERYDAY YOU FIGHT BACK!!!

    HELLO, HOLLYWOOD!!! DO YOU GET IT?!!!!

  2. I looked around on the web for a while and have read the Protesevich script, which sucked. I even heard Will Smith was supposed to play Neville. I don’t think he should play it for the obvious reason…he’s a horrible actor, and could not pull off playing a 40something year old white man. Anyway, I did see this script on fanfiction.net that I think is Waaayy better than the Protosevich script.

    http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2585753/1/

    This is the best script I have seen, it seems more like a remake of Omega Man, but very good. Read it and see

  3. Heh…c’mon now, you’ve gotta appreciate The Omega Man as the middle film in Chuck Heston’s dystopian future trilogy (bookended by Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green). He was giving some real Shatner-esque performances in those films. The Omega Man lacks the great quotes that end the other two films, though. Planet of the Apes has the classic, “You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! God damn you all to HELL!” Hard to beat that. Then in Soylent Green you got, “Soylent Green is people!” with the scarf around his neck and the hand up in the air. Still, I was always a little partial to The Omega Man’s, “It’s where I live. It’s where I’ve always lived. It’s where I’m GOING to live. And no one’s going to drive me out of it.” OK, OK…so it wasn’t at the end of the film, but he delivers the line with that smug, greasy bravado that’s so typical of early 70’s Chuck.

    Matheson’s book could be turned into a real cinematic treasure, but it could easily be adapted into a horrible film, too. The old rumors that were up at Coming Attractions by Corona and the early sketches of the whatever-the-hell they were supposed to be (not vampires, apparently) were making me wish Hollywood had never discovered the book.

  4. Matheson’s book should be required reading, as far as I’m concerned. THE OMEGA MAN is a farce, however, and should be bagged and trashed. I think the principle problem in bringing this book to film is that the book is largely introspective in its best parts, and you just can’t capture that cinematically with great ease or effectiveness.

  5. Matheson’s book has a great vibe. There’s this feeling of loss and desperation. A plague of vampirism that essentially removes mankind from the Earth is one of those ideas that Matheson was able to deliver in a way that few writers could. The story goes that Romero wanted to make I Am Legend and couldn’t get the rights, so he changed the vampires to zombies and made Night of the Living Dead. Just the idea of an extremely virulent infection transforming the face of humanity into something hostile towards the uninfected is enough to give you a little shiver. My mother took me to see Omega Man when it came out and I still have a soft spot for the film. The Vincent Price movie is good, but Italian (meaning it’s dubbed since the Italians never used to shoot synch sound) and I have a hard time with bad synch. I think it’s a great idea to remake it. The remake could really suck, though (no pun intended) if it isn’t done right.

  6. I think the novel is simply fantastic. I read it for the first time just recently.

    I have never seen either of the 2 previous attampts to film this, but have heard that they differ from the book greatly.

    I just hope that THIS version sticks to the novel closely as it really does have the potential to be a cracking good film.

    Most importantly, as I undertstand it, in The Omega Man the creatures were just mutants and not vampires. I love the way that the book closely examines the practicalities of vampires and a great deal would be lost if these were treated as mutants once again.

    We shall see.

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