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

[Joe Karlosi]

I definitely would disagree with you. I much prefer THE OMEGA MAN, as well as Charlton Heston to Vincent Price in the lead role.

 

[Don Solosan]

Count me out! I love The Omega Man!

 

[DavidPla]

Well, this film just got a brilliant piece of casting. Johnny Depp. Can't wait to see what he does with the role.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=15221

 

[James@R]

Looks like the story has been updated with some less exciting news:

Akiva Goldsman's rewrite apparently has the monsters unable to speak and they are more primal and unintelligent.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=15221

 

[Carlo_M]

What's that giant sucking sound I'm hearing? Woe is me, I was really looking forward to this film. I guess I'll always have the book...:frowning:

 

[JediFonger]

i didn't think the book was "all that". it was also very short... novella or short story-oriented. horror, by its own genre conventions has always been limited in ways other genres have not been. it's all one big massive entertainment anyway... doesn't seek any higher purposes.

 

[Carlo_M]

It was short, and yet it said so much in so little about one man, and through him, the human condition.

I find it to be one of the foremost works of horror that really brought a an intelligent psychological aspect to the genre that defined "good horror" from "gore horror" IMO.

 

[Andy Sheets]

Eh, it's a novel. My edition is over 100 pages long and to me that makes it a novel, not a novella or short story. I realize that books published today are routinely overwritten to the point of obscenity but seriously...

I think the book makes good points about perception and cultural relativity, in addition to providing a very exciting vampire yarn. I have a lot of doubts that Goldsman will be able to pick up on any of the subtext that I see in it; it's telling to me that most of the people involved in the production keep talking about it in relation to germ warfare and diseases and the war in Iraq...?

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I haven't read the book, but I have seen the "Last Man on Earth" and "The Omega Man". Both are pretty good, neither really good, but I like "The Omega Man" a little better. Other movies based on Richard Matheson stories, short or otherwise have never been blockbusters. My favorite is "The Incredible Shrinking Man" but I like others. To make this movie the blockbuster able to pay for a star like Wil Smith would require dummying up the story, face it. This story would be best served by an HBO or Showtime treatment like Masters of Horror. I do think filming the book as written would likely be very good given a modest budget and a worthy film maker like Ridley Scott, although he does a poor job of cost control typically.

Richard Matheson is so good, it is a shame more of his stories can't be handled like Shrinking Man. God forbid the upcoming remake of that one directed by Wayans!

Chris

 

[joshEH]

What about costume design?

Nobody does the neckerchief anymore. Chucky Heston rocked that little piece of neckware. Do questions about costume design seem as gay to read as they do to write?

Also, I always feel that Thomas Jane is doing an homage to Chuck Heston's jaw clench most of the time. Why not go vintage shot for shot and have Jane do it? Oh, I remember -- 'cause that would suck. If the lead has to be a man of color, go with Henry Simmons, that giant dude from NYPD Blue.

 

[Quentin]

Holy crap that sounds like the worst kind of Goldsman rewrite junk there is. Depp replaces the girl as the survivor? Bleh.

The vamps don't/can't speak?? What the...? But, they're smart enough to figure out ways to lure Neville out, to trap him? How do they complain about the crappy hand they've been dealt? How do we get the information about their plans? Do they have no plans?

God...scratch this film off the list...

 

[JediFonger]

sweet, will smith and depp in homo-erotic-compromising positions? wow =).

 

[Shawn_KE]

"aw hell no"

 

[joshEH]

You watch. Will Smith will end up making a hip-hop cover of Michael Jackson's "Thriller," and do a music video with people dressed up as the vamps prancing around.

The problem with the book I Am Legend is that it's too damn short for a film. It has to be expanded. And if you are battling vampires in Los Angeles and you are the last human, you won't be stuck in your shack. You'd move to the Hollywood Hills into a mansion, and heavily fortify it after picking up all the weaponry you could find from the gun stores and dead gangbangers.

Tone-wise, you gotta synthesize the influences of the original book, the Heston film, and then stuff like the film Falling Down and the British television miniseries Ultraviolet (not the crap movie). That's how you make a decent adaptation.

 

[Carlo_M]

is that it's too damn short for a film.

I disagree. I think it's the perfect length. Too often, novels are too long and the Hollywood suits force cuts that compromise the story. IAL is just about the right length for a 100-110 minute movie and unlike other adaptations, most if not all of the important points will be able to be shown onscreen.

You've actually motivated me to (when I get the book back from a friend to whom I've loaned it) try my hand at a screenplay. I thought this latest movie would absolve me of the effort but given the more recent news, it looks like there might still be a market for a good adaptation of IAL even after this latest effort.

 

[Quentin]

You can find Protosevich's script online. It's not bad. It needs some work, but it's a great starting point. Unfortunately, Goldsman is a bad choice for that work.

 

[Seth Paxton]

It's too bad, because while I agree that Smith could be a terrible choice if driven toward the ID4/WWWest tone, he could also pull off the brooding, isolated tone needed here. I think he has shown that he can play introspective and stressed very well if given the chance, and certainly Depp is up to anything thrown at him.

But then you come back to Akiva...and you must worry.

 

[JediFonger]

i think a time to kill is akiva's last great work, other than that... why's he so popular? he's only done a handful of movies and most of them pretty bad.

 

[AlexCremers]

Please, no famous faces like Bruce Willis or Will Smith. I wanna see an "unknown"! Just turn "I Am Legend" into a blasting good movie and people will come.


Alex



PS: Of course, the film will catapult the "unknown" into stardom but he will always be most prominently remembered as that guy who played the last man on Earth.

 

[Norm]

They don't have the guts to cast an unknown. They want a big name to bring a bunch of people in the first week. That should give us a hint that the story will probably suck.