COME OUT, NEVILLE!
Apr. 27th, 2006 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerWill Smith has just been signed to star in a new adaptation of I AM LEGEND.
For those who don't know, I AM LEGEND is a novel by a man named Richard Matheson. Matheson is one of the greatest and most influential horror/suspense writers of the 20th century, but whose name is generally only known to the big flaming geek dorks like me and Stephen King. He adapted a number of his stories for THE TWILIGHT ZONE, including the legendary Shatner-fest, "Terror at 20,000 Feet" (you know... "There's! Some... thing... onthewing!" Seriously, though great episode).
Matheson's novel I AM LEGEND is about the sole survivor of a plague that swept through the world, turning everyone into vampires. The last human has boarded up his house and has to defend it every night from the mindless vampire hordes, and then in the day he gets some stakes, kills a few in their sleep, gets some supplies, and the cycle continues for months as he tries to maintain his humanity. It's a brilliant book. Maybe the best vampire novel I've ever read.
It's been adapted to film twice already. Most famously as the cheese-fest THE OMEGA MAN, with Heston, and before that in the much better THE LAST MAN ON EARTH with Vincent Price. It's also worth noting that it was hugely influential to George Romero to make NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Even though they're vampires, I AM LEGEND is the spiritual godfather to the Zombie Apocalypse genre.
And now Will Smith's in the lead. Now, Smith is an excellent actor when he bloody wants to be and not just some cocky action variant of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air (I really disliked SIX DEGREES... but thought he showed amazing talent). The film will be directed by the helmer of CONSTATINE, which I understood was actually damn good, and I will see it eventually once I get over the utter complete wrongness of Keanu as Johnny-boy (and the gum at the end, I will never, ever forgive that). The screenplay is by Akiva Goldsman, Oscar-winning writer of A BEAUTIFUL MIND as well as the writer of BATMAN FOREVER and BATMAN AND ROBIN. Insert your own comment here.
Will it be good? I hope so. It deserves to be. I mean, I sincerely doubt they'll have the guts to do the ending (which they did faithfully in the Vincent Price version back in the 50's), which is at the very heart of why and what I AM LEGEND is. Read the book, though. It's excellent.
It's funny I should be reading this now, as just yesterday I picked up Stephen King's CELL, his own take on the Zombie Apocalypse, dedicated to Richard Matheson and George Romero. So far it's utterly riveting.
For those who don't know, I AM LEGEND is a novel by a man named Richard Matheson. Matheson is one of the greatest and most influential horror/suspense writers of the 20th century, but whose name is generally only known to the big flaming geek dorks like me and Stephen King. He adapted a number of his stories for THE TWILIGHT ZONE, including the legendary Shatner-fest, "Terror at 20,000 Feet" (you know... "There's! Some... thing... onthewing!" Seriously, though great episode).
Matheson's novel I AM LEGEND is about the sole survivor of a plague that swept through the world, turning everyone into vampires. The last human has boarded up his house and has to defend it every night from the mindless vampire hordes, and then in the day he gets some stakes, kills a few in their sleep, gets some supplies, and the cycle continues for months as he tries to maintain his humanity. It's a brilliant book. Maybe the best vampire novel I've ever read.
It's been adapted to film twice already. Most famously as the cheese-fest THE OMEGA MAN, with Heston, and before that in the much better THE LAST MAN ON EARTH with Vincent Price. It's also worth noting that it was hugely influential to George Romero to make NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Even though they're vampires, I AM LEGEND is the spiritual godfather to the Zombie Apocalypse genre.
And now Will Smith's in the lead. Now, Smith is an excellent actor when he bloody wants to be and not just some cocky action variant of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air (I really disliked SIX DEGREES... but thought he showed amazing talent). The film will be directed by the helmer of CONSTATINE, which I understood was actually damn good, and I will see it eventually once I get over the utter complete wrongness of Keanu as Johnny-boy (and the gum at the end, I will never, ever forgive that). The screenplay is by Akiva Goldsman, Oscar-winning writer of A BEAUTIFUL MIND as well as the writer of BATMAN FOREVER and BATMAN AND ROBIN. Insert your own comment here.
Will it be good? I hope so. It deserves to be. I mean, I sincerely doubt they'll have the guts to do the ending (which they did faithfully in the Vincent Price version back in the 50's), which is at the very heart of why and what I AM LEGEND is. Read the book, though. It's excellent.
It's funny I should be reading this now, as just yesterday I picked up Stephen King's CELL, his own take on the Zombie Apocalypse, dedicated to Richard Matheson and George Romero. So far it's utterly riveting.
