JoBlo have some more news on Johnny Depp’s role in the upcoming I Am Legend adaptation. And it ain’t good.
It seems that Matheson’s beautiful, original story is getting brutalised for its new incarnation, and won’t bear any resemblance to the novel. A prime example: The Cortman character – the part I originally thought Depp would play – won’t even exist in the film.
According to JoBlo, Depp and Smith will be a double team fighting dumb mutant vampire creatures that can’t even speak. Shouldn’t that be We Are Legend?
But it’s worse than that. The original title doesn’t even make sense if there’s more than one protagonist. And the final third of the book isn’t even possible given the changes they’ve made to the vampires.
I’m all for an action movie in which Depp and Smith fight vampires, but please don’t piss on a great story like Legend by doing another Omega Man. That said, it sounds like the God awful Omega Man was a more faithful adaptation than this will be.
Via FilmStalker.
Omega Man is alright… as long as you don’t view it as an adaptation of I am Legend. That said, I’m going to be really disappointed if this version isn’t at least reasonably faithful to the book. It’s a shame cos Johnny Depp is ideal as the hero, much better casting than Charlton Heston.
On the plus side, at least we won’t have Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role, as was mooted back in the 90s when this adaptation was first mooted.
Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to wait another thirty years before the next film version is made, hopefully that’ll be better.
I think I prefer the idea of an I Am Arnie movie than I Am Smith.
Totally agree about Depp being the ideal hero – a faithful adaptation with Depp as the central character would be magnificent. Maybe they’ll sack Smith and decide to go faithful? Yeah – I didn’t think so either…
I do hope that one day, even if it’s made for TV or something (it doesn’t need a huge budget) we can a faithful adaptation of Legend. Which reminds me: I really need to dig out Last Man Alive.
Yeah, I guess that I’m holding out for a TV mini-series or something. It’s a bit sad that there’s never been a good film/TV adaptation of what is one of the best and most important horror/sci-fi novels ever written.
Also, it vies with ‘Do androids dream of electric sheep?’ for the coveted ‘Josiah St. John Best Title Award’.
It seems to date the only good adaptation is the Vincent Price’s Last Man on Earth, which it is said that the screenplay was contributed by Richard Matheson. Of the two previous movie versions of the story, I admit I much prefer the Vincent Price version than the Omega Man. If they really screw up the story with the next version (smith and depp), it would be the most sorry adaptation of the novel. Lost would be all the insights the book is about.