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Post by thedeadfreak97 on Aug 2, 2010 14:27:21 GMT -5
I'm sure that most people have heard of the movie I am Legend by starring Will as Robert Neville. But does anyone know its origins?
It was originally a book Written by Richard Matheson in 1956. The book is set in the year 1975 where Robert Neville beliveshe is the last man on earth. All those around him have been killed by a mysterious new disease to which he is immune ( it explains why in the book but i cant be bothered explaining ). But all those who have died become semi-living vampire creatures who can only perform basic actions (walk, talk etc.) and attack his house at night, as daylight kills them. By day he repairs his house, and by night he defends his house.
the book was made into a movie in 1964 in which Vincent Price played Robert Morgan ( they changed the name for the movie). The movie was pretty much the same as the book, bar a few slight differences and a different ending. The movie was called The Last Man on Earth.
The movie was remade in 1971, in which Charelton Heston starred as Robert Neville. There where an extreme amount of differences to the book. The movie was called The Omega Man.
Finally, Will Smith starred as robert Neville in I am Legend in 2007. The movie was unrecigniseable to the orignal book and was like a blow - job to Richard Matheson.
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Post by UndeadNed on Aug 2, 2010 21:32:32 GMT -5
Sorry I forgot to mention it earlier welcome to the board deadfreak.
Yes I'm aware of the origins of the story. When I first saw Omega Man I heard it was based of Richard Matheson's novel. I've also heard Steven King was a big fan of that story as well as Night of the Living Dead being inspired from it.
I wouldn't call the 2007 remake a BJ to Matheson though. They abandoned all the moral ambiguity and the twist that made his story so interesting for a bunch of cheap scares and action sequences. Neville is the good guy period, and all the vampire/zombies are just mindless bloodthirsty monsters (who look terrible in CGI). You can tell the script went through quite a few re-writes though because of that one scene where the... I'll call them Vambies actually display intelligence by setting up a trap for Neville, but then that scene is quickly forgotten and its back to the old mindless monster trope.
It always annoys me when studios sacrifice quality for more box office revenue, because those movies never stand the test of time and usually become forgettable a year or two later.
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