Francis Lawrence‘s action-packed adaptation of Richard Matheson‘s I Am Legend is a enough post-apocalyptic thriller. Like 1964’s The Final Man On Earth and 1971’s The Omega Man earlier than it, the movie strays closely from Matheson’s supply materials in favor of one thing extra fashionable and fast-paced. Nonetheless, as distinctive as Lawrence’s Legend could also be, the 2007 film might have been one thing fairly completely different, because the movie’s rocky improvement underwent over a decade of adjustments and rewrites with a number of stars, writers, and administrators in consideration. Probably the most notable of these administrators was none apart from Ridley Scott, who really spent a number of years engaged on an idea for the movie earlier than the reins turned over but once more. Nonetheless, traces of his I Am Legend stay, displaying glimpses into an enchanting movie that just about was.
Warner Brothers obtained the rights to Matheson’s novel in 1970 and distributed The Omega Man a yr later. Starring Charlton Heston as a considerably tacky action-hero model of the protagonist, Robert Neville, Omega Man did not meet immense reward, and the mental property laid dormant for the following couple of a long time. Not till the Nineties did Warner Brothers begin to contemplate one other adaptation of the e book, and employed Mark Protosevich to draft a script. With a brand new imaginative and prescient of the story outlined, Warner Brothers signed Scott because the movie’s director in 1997.
Ridley Scott and John Logan Reworked a Daring Script For ‘I Am Legend’
With Scott greatest identified for Alien and Blade Runner on the time, he appeared like a pure match to make an up to date, sci-fi-heavy model of I Am Legend. Very like the completed 2007 movie, Protosevich’s preliminary script positioned Robert Neville in a post-apocalyptic twenty first century. Nonetheless, it happened in San Francisco moderately than New York and depicted the vampiric mutants—known as Darkseekers— as retaining components of civility and intelligence, extra like these in The Omega Man and fewer just like the zombie monsters in Lawrence’s last imaginative and prescient.
Scott had his qualms with Protosevich’s story, although, and changed him with screenwriter John Logan. Collectively, they wrote a brand new script— one which neared nearer to Lawrence’s eventual movie in some methods but in addition contained a couple of esoteric qualities that by no means noticed the sunshine of day. Whereas the Logan draft made the Darkseekers extra animalistic and unhinged, the story was extra of a psychological thriller than a simple motion movie. The complete first hour would include no dialogue, and it will give attention to Robert Neville’s extreme isolation and melancholy because the final man alive.
Idea Artwork Reveals Sensible Impact Darkseekers for Scott’s Imaginative and prescient
There’s idea artwork for Scott’s imaginative and prescient of the movie that features photos of the Darkseekers. They seem sickly, nearly skeletal with their bones prominently displaying by their pale, emaciated flesh. Hints of antagonistic villainy whisper by their in any other case lifeless eyes, and so they don nothing however rudimentary garbs made out of repurposed trash, giving them a uniquely urban-tribal aesthetic. Scott even had character results firm Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc (ADI) create prosthetic sculptures and make-up checks for the beings, with legendary particular results artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. on the helm.
In 2012, ADI launched a video with Gillis and Woodruff sharing photos of their designs, and the outcomes are appropriately terrifying. Like Scott and Despretz’s sketches, the prosthetic Darkseekers seem as strolling, bony corpses. Nonetheless, the bodily sculptures supply extra depth and texture to the beings. Within the photos, one can see the eye that Gillis and Woodruff put into the Darkseekers’ decaying enamel, pale veins, and rotting pores and skin. The artists clarify that they lined the Darkseekers with a silicone membrane, making them seem scrawny to the purpose of translucence.
Gillis and Woodruff additionally say that Scott suggested them to take a look at Seventeenth-century wax sculptures for inspiration. That queue together with the appliance of the make-up on precise fashions’ faces additional emphasizes the uncanny humanity nonetheless lingering within the Darkseekers’ eyes. The designers point out that, on the time they had been making these Darkseeker fashions, they did not know whether or not they can be carried out within the movie as bodysuits, prosthetics, or animatronics. Any of these three approaches, nonetheless, would have relied on sensible results moderately than CGI. This could have given Scott’s I Am Legend a basic zombie-horror film really feel, very similar to the enduring work of George Romero. Come 2007, nonetheless, CGI was the mainstream methodology for creating film monsters, and the digital Darkseekers solidified I Am Legend as much less of a horror movie and extra of a generic motion film. Sadly, the CGI Darkseekers didn’t find yourself wanting as enthralling—or plausible—as Gillis and Woodruff’s designs and their uninspiring look really ended up as one of many movie’s worst qualities.
Ridley Scott Needed Arnold Schwarzenegger to Lead His ‘I Am Legend’
Maybe the best distinction between Scott’s I Am Legend and the 2007 movie that hit theaters, although, can be the star picked to play Robert Neville. In 1997, Will Smith was recent off the Recent Prince of Bel-Air and had not but solidified himself as a bankable motion hero. Though the studio thought of Tom Cruise, Michael Douglas, and different A-listers for the half, the primary selection for Scott’s model of the character was Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Like Charlton Heston in Omega Man, Schwarzenegger might need introduced a extra jovial, enjoyable vitality to Neville’s character. The motion icon was already parodying himself in comedies equivalent to Kindergarten Cop and Junior. On the similar time, it will have been Schwarzenegger’s first collaboration with Ridley Scott. The director allegedly would have reinvented Schwarzenegger by the character, demonstrating the actor’s persistent affinity for motion, whereas additionally showcasing his dramatic chops in an emotionally intense function. It is unclear whether or not this could have labored, however certainly, a Schwarzenegger Neville would have come throughout fairly otherwise from a Will Smith Neville.
Ballooning Budgets and Altering Markets Led Warner Brothers to Cancel Scott’s ‘I Am Legend’
With Schwarzenegger hooked up, elaborate set items deliberate out in city areas, and laborious sensible results wanted for a massified military of the undead, Scott’s Legend was operating up a expensive tab. Warner Brothers estimated the funds at $108 million. For comparability, The Matrix was being made on the similar time underneath Warner Brothers, and it managed on a $65 million funds. Scott tried to rewrite the script as a inexpensive venture, however earlier than it moved ahead, Warner Brothers pulled the plug.
Whereas the funds was a significant concern, different elements such because the sci-fi film market on the time in addition to Scott and Schwarzenegger’s most up-to-date movies might need additional pushed Warner Brothers to cancel I Am Legend. In ’97 and ’98 respectively, Warner Brothers launched The Postman and Sphere, each big-budget sci-fi movies that flopped on the field workplace. In the meantime, Schwarzenegger’s popularity as an actor continued to say no, maybe most shamefully with Warner Brothers’ personal Batman & Robin, the place his notorious efficiency as Mr. Freeze won’t ever be forgotten. Lastly, Scott wasn’t having the perfect luck right now both, as his mid-90s directorial outings (1492: Conquest of Paradise, White Squall, and G.I. Jane) had been failing to win over critics or field workplace returns. I Am Legend—no less than as envisioned by Scott—was beginning to look far too nice of a chance.
After Scott’s Legend was nixed, Warner Brothers reworked the venture a couple of instances. Protosevich was rehired to write down one more draft of the script, and are available 2002, Arnold was put behind the digicam as producer whereas Michael Bay was thought of for the director’s chair and Will Smith for the lead. After one more fallow interval, the directorial reins handed onto Lawrence in 2005, with Akiva Goldsman hooked up as producer. Whereas there have been extra hiccups and particulars alongside the way in which, Goldsman rewrote the script yet another time, moved the story to New York, and are available 2006, filming started. The remainder is historical past…. or ought to we are saying legend.
Within the meantime, Schwarzenegger took a hiatus from appearing to function governor of California, whereas Scott moved on to his subsequent venture: somewhat historic epic titled Gladiator that reaffirmed his popularity as an excellent director. Contemplating Gladiator‘s immense success and the truth that Lawrence’s I Am Legend is a stable—albeit ambivalently reviewed—film, one can’t be too upset with how the whole lot performed out. Nonetheless, the proof of the movie that almost was is fascinating, and one can think about that with sensible results and a singular directorial imaginative and prescient, Scott’s Legend might have been an actual deal with. On condition that an I Am Legend sequel is now on the horizon, it will behoove Warner Brothers to take notes from this missed alternative.
