Omega Man and "I Am Legend" (1 Viewer)

[Richard--W]

The story is personal on an intimate small scale, not impersonal action on a big epic scale.
That does not imply a lack of crowd scenes or extras.
Nor does it imply a lack of action or suspense.
It can be studio or not, but when I read a script like this, and I see how much crew is required to make it work, it is easy to conclude that this film is taking the wrong approach. If they need CGI to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge, they're not making I AM LEGEND. If they need shots from speeding helicopters showing the city overrun by mutants, they've taken it out of the mind of Neville.

Further than that, I don't like to insist too much.
It does no good anyhow.

 

[DavidPla]

Sounds like you would've very much liked the version Ridley Scott was aiming for. No dialogue in for at least an hour into the movie. Would've personally loved to see Scott's version but I can also understand the studio's trepidation.

I do look forward to seeing this though and find it interesting that it has a Christmas release date and no a summer one which would suggest to me a very serious, depressing film. Nothing I've seen or heard seems to bring any concern yet though. Even the casting of Will Smith, as he's now progressed into a much fuller, better, serious actor.

 

[Richard--W]

I don't care if it's a studio film or an independent film or an independent film that leases a backlot at the studio. Actually, everything needed to tell this story can be found on the Universal backlot, including the city streets, with only minimal location work. I AM LEGEND doesn't need a hundred special effects technicians generating CGI landscapes and CGI people. It's not about blowing up the Brooklyn Bridge to keep the mutants from escaping. It's a personal tragedy not an epic spectacle. No explosions and NO SPECTACLE!

I AM LEGEND is in-the-moment and on-the-verge, as immediate and spontaneous as the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) with the same inexorable momentum. It's close to the same physical scale, maybe a wee bit larger. It's important to see faces and hear voices and to feel empathy in I AM LEGEND without wall-to-wall music telegraphing what's going on.

Matheson gave an interview on the internet several years ago, if I can find it I'll post a link and the relevant comments here.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

It is funny reading the first posts in this thread, "Will Smith? I'm out".

I never heard of this until seeing the teaser and it has me interested. I enjoy Will Smith in most stuff, and if it wasn't for the grand shots of an empty NYC I probably wouldn't have any interest in seeing it this far out with no knowledge of the story. Needless to say, I want to check out I Am Legend.

 

[Nelson Au]

Interesting to read the last few posts. As I said, I know very little about this Will Smith version. From the comments, it sounds like the material would have been better served by the people responsible for the film"Children of Men". I haven't seen that film yet, but from the response, it appears to have a successful blend of intellegence, tension build-up and adhering to the original source material.

 

[todd s]

Regarding the endings of the other versions... I have a feeling unlike the other versions. Will Smith doesn't die at the end. But, who knows.

 

[Richard--W]

There's a fascinating article on, and interview with, the author of I Am Legend here:

http://www.scifistation.com/matheson...son_index.html

Matheson talks about adaptations of I Am Legend. He wrote a script for Hammer Films that couldn't be made on account of problems with British censors. So his script became the basis for The Last Man On Earth, filmed in Italy in 1964. Vincent Price played Neville. It's on an MGM Midnite Movie paired with Panic In Year Zero. The film isn't right but I like it better than The Omega Man or this new one.

Matheson wrote the script when he was at a creative peak in the late 1950s, when many of his best sci-fi / horror short stories were being written. Wish I could read his original draft, before Sidney Salkow tinkered with it. Matheson published several scripts recently. I hope he will publish this one, or leak it out somehow.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I'm still worried about Akiva's scripting, but clearly a good portion of the CGI appears to be for the spectacle of A) blowing up the bridge in order to try to contain the "plague" (which is fine with me, it's part of the human desperation and it doesn't mean it works as the plot suggests) B) CGI work to turn NYC into the empty, desolate version that has him isolated and utterly alone.

The December date might mean that they think there is at least a touch of real bankable drama in the film, maybe more than that considering that this isn't a family film.

I mean Spielberg had captured a simliar intimate tone with War of the Worlds inside a world of spectacle, at least till the end when he went for action-hero ending. You can have big scale CGI and FX but still be right up close and intimate with the hero I think.

To me nothing about this production says "this will fail". Seems like every part of it could go either way, great or terrible.

I would guess that even if they don't use flashbacks (though I wish they would), they probably would want to get to the initial point as quickly as possible per standard script rules. In this case that means "get to when he's alone quickly". They are selling it as "he's alone" so they know that they want to be in that part of the plot ASAP.

So either you start in it and flashback or you burn right to that point quickly and have that bridge blown up by minute 10 at the most, not unlike how the Dawn of the Dead remake technically started before people were turning and even had a romance scene but got to the point so quickly that it actually shocked you (well at least me and people I know ).

If they need shots from speeding helicopters showing the city overrun by mutants,

I need to watch again, but the vibe I got was that was not mutants, but rather humans desperate to get out to safety (it was day after all) not unlike the desperation of escape seen throughout the previously mentioned War of the Worlds.

 

[JediFonger]

i doubt the sex scene will be hot. i think the closest will smith got to it was 6 degrees of separation. everything else has been fairly tame.

 

[Greg_S_H]

If they need shots from speeding helicopters showing the city overrun by mutants,

If you're referring to the things running through the cars, they were deer. I'm late to the discussion, so I don't know for sure. I just saw the trailer for the first time, and I'm completely down with it. I wish it wasn't so long of a wait, but the "winter means more serious and depressing" sounds like just what the story needs.

I read the story once a year or so, so I can spot a few things different here, but I can live with them. For example, I don't think the Neville of the book would waste time knocking golf balls off the deck of a ship. But, days are long, and it's reasonably human to try to find ways to entertain yourself, especially when you can find ways that would have been impossible before the world moved on. Besides, it is more reflective of our times. We definitely have to be entertained much more regularly than the people of the '50s did. TV went off the air overnights, there were no video games, no internet.

Anyway, I like the shots of the flooded-out city and the bridge thing was pretty neat. Kind of like Grand Theft Auto, but that bridge isn't getting fixed after a certain mission.

 

[Andres Munoz]

I just finished reading the book and I must say, I was hooked from start to finish. What a riveting and intimate story.

Having said that, I still plan to give the Will Smith movie a try. I still don't know for a fact that the fact that they're blowing up a bridge and they have a long list of FX people means that the movie will be very loosely based on the book. Who knows? We might be pleasantly surprised with it?

All I'm saying is, let's wait until we see the actual result before trashing it or praising it.

 

[Andres Munoz]

BTW, I saw Heston's The Omega Man and I didn't like it too much. I think part of it was

the mutants they decided to replace the vampires with. They didn't seem too menacing and just weren't interesting at all.

 

[Don Solosan]

I like the infected people in Omega Man; they're not your standard issue psycho-zombies out for blood. They have a very specific reason for wanting to kill Neville (what he represents to them), and they (for the most part) remain true to their beliefs in trying to achieve that goal. And how can you not love Anthony Zerbe? He's awesome!

 

[JediFonger]

they're not going with vampires for this... again. how can every adaptation fail in re-imaginging the vampire story? it's ridiculous.

 

[Paul Arnette]

they're not going with vampires for this... again.

Seriously? *sigh* Well, I can cross this movie off my watch list now.

No vampires, no sale!

 

[Malcolm R]

I'm as mystified as you. At least three times they've "adapted" this and they still haven't used the actual story.

 

[Steve Christou]

Well the Vincent Price version Last Man on Earth did feature vampires. The Omega Man had mutants, so I was sorta hoping this latest 'adaptation' featured flesh-eating zombies.


And the eventual Shia LaBeouf version will most probably feature bloodthirsty mutant alien cyborgs.

 

[DavidPla]

Well, I can understand why the "vampires" are being discarded. Over use. Back in the 1950s when the book was written, you basically had Bela Lugosi's Dracula and Nosferatu. Today? Way too many vampire flicks. They can keep the same creatures as written in the book and just not CALL them "vampires", which is probably a smart move.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I agree. Vampires are done to death. But so are zombies.

 

[Steve Christou]

I was kidding about the zombies Joe that's why I added a wink.

Well, I can understand why the "vampires" are being discarded. Over use.

And probably because the filmmakers didn't want their shiny new 'sci-fi' film grouped with the likes of Van Helsing, Blade and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As much as I like Matheson's novel if I was producing a multi-million dollar movie of the story I'd go the mutant route too, I'd try and make it as gritty and realistic as possible. No music, no quips, no Will Smith.