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UPDATED With info about Protosevich's Involvement! Have you been curious what's been going on with I AM LEGEND'
Hey folks, Harry here... Before I went off to Chicago, I just wanted to clarify this piece of info for you people. The guy who actually conducted the interview with Bowman sent me this, so take not that Protosevich is attached and is still doing the writing! So take heart! If that be the case... well, things may be awfully rosy!
I'm the guy who interviewed Rob Bowman for "Vampires & Slayers" concerning
"I Am Legend." I just wanted to clarify one thing: Mark Protosevich is
still very much the writer involved with the project. He is the
screenwriter of Bowman's version. Just thought you should know
Most of you know I'm a huge fan of the Mark Protosevich script called I AM LEGEND. I'm also a fan of the Charlton Heston THE OMEGA MAN and the Price THE LAST MAN ON EARTH. And of course I love Matheson's original book that it was all based on.
There's been a lot of fighting over this film for a while now. Protosevich's script began with a gigantic tsunami of praise, and then Ridley Scott began rewriting it with John Logan (writer of RKO 281). Then they went back to Protosevich, but then Warner Brothers wanted to trim the budget by.... (about the exact same amount of money it would cost to hire ARNOLD) 20 Million.
Next thing we know Ridley Scott is off directing GLADIATOR, Protosevich's script is apparently discarded and Rob Bowman (he directed the X-FILES movie among many of the episodes as well) came on as director.
It seems that they are completely rewriting the script from page one. Reconceiving it all, adding narration and many other bits here and there. Go check out the interview:
Click Here To Read The Interview Between "Vampires and Slayers" and Director Rob Bowman.
Then come back and discuss what you found out!
Next thing we know Ridley Scott is off directing GLADIATOR, Protosevich's script is apparently discarded and Rob Bowman (he directed the X-FILES movie among many of the episodes as well) came on as director.
It seems that they are completely rewriting the script from page one. Reconceiving it all, adding narration and many other bits here and there. Go check out the interview:
Click Here To Read The Interview Between "Vampires and Slayers" and Director Rob Bowman.
Then come back and discuss what you found out!
Click Here To Read The Interview Between "Vampires and Slayers" and Director Rob Bowman.
Then come back and discuss what you found out!
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well, shit on me! i read the script 2 days ago and loved it. told my friends how great it was, so of course now theyre going to change the whole thing. son of a wicked bitch!
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Come on People. Either i read a different book than you or maybe i missed ahnolds big dramatic movie, but there was no way they could make this movie with him in it. Don't get me wrong, i enjoy a good shoot-up or ahnold action flick, but how many of you have actually read the book. Apparently, the guy that is now attached to it doesn't get it either. It's like that really bad script that i read that hadn't Ben Cortman having two assistants and Ben was hardly in the movie. God, I wish some one could explain to my satisfaction why you would take this great Matheson novel and change it. Here's an ideal to all of you brain dead hollywood types,(hope somebody reads this too you, because you are all obviously too stupid to read)make the movie just like the book. If you have to cut down on parts of it, remember talk is cheap. Mention it and move on. Don't change this and don't have ahnold in it. Have somebody that can act in it. That means no tom cruise (remember that rumor, i almost had to go to hollywood and do something about that) or brad "pretty boy" pitt, kevin"i can't act"costner or val"i suck as batman"kilmer. get somebody with acting ability, but also believeabilty. For all of it's faults, i could believe that old Chuck Heston was the last man alive. one last thing hollywood low lifes, make this you new rule:
Do it right, or don't do it! -
...if this heaping pile of trash gets the green light from Warner Bros I will be more convinced than ever that Hollywood is so hopeless it borders on the frightening. Arnold is the actor they feel best equipped to portray the emotional state of the last man left on Earth? Has he ever conveyed any sense of emotion at all in any film? And they want him to do first-person voice overs? Give me a break...
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Rob Bowman ain't the second coming - he got the XXX-files flick because he's been around since day one of that show and apparantly knows how to use a camera. How anyone can possibly expect this new version of I AM LEGEND to be a success is beyond me.
Is someone going to have to fly the goodyear blimp over LA with it saying "ARNOLD IS FINISHED" before anyone gets the message? -
I read the book "I Am Legend" about a year ago and I truy liked it, not because it was a post-apocalyptic vampire novel but because it was a novel about the last man on Earth and how he copes with this realisation. It is a very intriguing question, as are many of the novel's aspects.
When I read the interview with Rob Bowman it looked as if he had a similar view on how the movie should be like as I have. Of course having Ridley Scott on the project would have been awesome but we have to settle with what we have and it is not at all bad. Although the X-files movie was quite trivial I found the visual style and some of its parts (the last part!) exhilirating.
Another problem though is that of the script. I must confess that I have not read the first script and I do not know how good it was so we can only hope for this being as good as the last one (if we are to go by Harry's opinion).
Then another problem arises, Arnold's acting. Arnold has turned in some real turkey performances the last few years (Mr Freeze, brrr) but as far as I can see Arnolds acting has always been up to the standard of the director (take T2 and B&R as examples of this). If Mr Bowman can make Arnold fit in to his vision of Robert Neville (which he says he can) then I would certainly hope that this can be done, although I would rather have someone like Michael Douglas or Harrison Ford in the role.
I think that this may become a good movie but that's just my humble and amateur opinion. -
I so agree with all of the above. Arnold needs to be put away in a box and trotted out for the Republican party every four years. Really, can anyone see him acting with any range beyond a 'snappy' joke when he kills a villian. Stick around my ass.
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Arnold and Rob Bowman are the right people for I AM LEGEND. Why? Because we need a director that can do thrilling scenes and special effects ala X-FILES and an actor that can kick ass when it comes to fighting. At first, I hated the idea of the Mark Potvochi (sp) script getting canned, but after reading Bowmans interview and seeing what he wants to do with the film and Arnold, I say give him a chance. As for Arnold as Neville, why can't you idiots see that Arnold CAN ACT. Like someone said above, give Arnold a good director and he will do a great job. It's GREAT that Arnold is doing different kinds of action films after END OF DAYS (which will ROCK, mark my words naysayers). Like I'll always say, if you want to read great dramatic action films that Arnold will do soon, read the scripts for WITH WINGS AS EAGLES (no one will do a better acting job in the role of Ostermann than Arnold) and CRUSADE (the same goes for Hagan). Arnold's future looks brighter than ever. That goes for you, you naysaying, Arnold bashing SHIT FOR BRAINS.
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And I don't quite understand the negative reaction. I was shocked to come back and NOT see everyone going nuts. I love the idea for this movie. I love the idea of pushing Arnold to a more intellectual place. can he do it? I just hope that's a matter of good directon. Is the script any good? I haven't read this script or the last script. All I know is that I agree with the one guy who says that the Smith Superman script was hugely overrated (though I believe Smith when he implies that to be a fault of Peters). that's an unpopular opinion of mine, so I tend to put faith into this guy. If he says that the Prostelovitch (sp) draft was shit, I'm willing to put stock in that.
Will this script be any good? all I know is that Bowman got me really excited talking about what it's like to be the last man on earth. The best part of the Omega Man to me was that first scene, where he is watching a film in a downtown theater, laughing. You see this complex knot of emotions in the character: he can do anythng he wants (check out the damned nice car, interior, etc.), but he is lonely for others, and he is seeing that movie not so much to laugh as to experience other people again. He was pathetic. It was beautiful. Most people would not be able to deal with being the last man on earth. They would go crazy, which is what is beginning to happen. I kept thinking throughout the film that he shouldn't try so hard to kill the zombies; the conflict was the only thing keeping him sane.
The stuff that just turned me away was the action/zombies/whatever stuff that just seemed silly and sub-cool at times. True, i love a good action film. i love a good sci-fi film. If the action and sci-fi elements are done well, i'll be supergiddy. but the thing that really gets me going (and the success of the Matrix proves to me that all of you do, too) is when a director decides to tell a story, a story that involves some fantastical elements and needs sfx to make it work, but something that is--when the print is actually experienced--a story. Bowman's got me excited. The guy makes sense to do this. X-files does exactly what I was saying. I don't know what epsodes are his or not, and I know that I disliked the movie for several reasons (which give me cause to worry), but the high quality of the X-files and the fact that this guy must have made at least some of the episodes that I really enjoyed, give me hope that this is the guy. If he knows that he is to make a great film, an epic film, i think we can trust hm to deliver.
Does Arnold worry me? I like the idea of making the plague about immune system failure because that justifies Arnold to me. If someone were to tell me that Arnold was the healthiest guy in the world, I would not have such a problem believing that guy. I think Arnold has looked silly in many roles because of hs physicality (the brilliant scentist Mr. freeze was a decathalon winner? an extremely well-built cop could pose as a kindergarten substitute and not be suspected as something else? These things take a huge suspension of belief.), but that's not a problem here. arnold will not look silly. Can he act? I have faith in Bowman that he can recognize the possibility of a problem and work extra-hard to get a good performance out of Arnold.
Hence, possible good script, the right director, the right actor (who has drawbacks but might surprise, especially if he's searching for respectability so hard now), guaranteed great effects. I for one await eagerly. -
Would someone please tell him that antibiotics do not make super-viruses! Antibiotics have NO effect on viruses, they only work on bacteria. I hate to sound likeka science geek (especially since I am), but damn! Do it right!
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Your fervent defense of Schwarzennegger is admirable, but face it, he hasn't grown at all as an actor since the first Terminator. In fact, he has gotten worse. He has gotten so lazy, he's stopped taking chances (it sounds like that may be changing though at least). Even his accent is almost incomprehensible now. I won't say I haven't enjoyed several of his films, I have, but master thespian, he ain't.
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"The Last Man On Earth" with Vinnie was great! Shot in eerie, black and white it had a stark, realism. The scene with his daughter who can't see and the wind blowing the leaves in the air is still creepy to this day along with Ben Cartman and Neville's wife trying to get him and the military dumping of the dead bodies still sends shudders. No one can top this flick! Screw Arnold and all those other overpaid big shots! Tom Cruise? No! Brad Pitt? No! Get someone who can act like Harrison Ford or Kurt Russell who would be good as Neville. At least you know where the money goes with these two actors.
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Lets face it. I true interpretation of the novel just isn't going to happen. It just isn't Hollywood material. The book isn't full of scences requiring heavy special effects or even big action sequnces, the kind of things your average Producer would consider as part of a sci-fi blockbuster. The only way this film is going to be made is if it departs dramaticly from the book. Now don't get me, I've love to see a "last man on earth vs Vampire hordes" action spectacliar, but don't pretend its "I am Legend".
Oh yeh and I dont care how good a director you are, Arnold cannot act. Fire a gun and hit bad guys - Yes, perform a dramatic scene - No. -
First off let me say that I AM LEGEND is one of my top ten favorite novels of all time. Richard Matheson perfectly captures the horror of the last surviving man on earth forced to shut himself up while bloodthirsty vampires try to destroy him. The 1964 Italian film L'ULTIMO UOMO DELLA TERRA (THE LAST MAN ON EARTH) stuck pretty close to the book because Richard Matheson (writing under the pseudonym Logan Swanson) adapted it. Then came THE OMEGA MAN in 1971 with Charlton Heston. This one was based loosely on the book. Now comes a proposed new version. All I want to say is why can't Richard Matheson adapt it? The script I read had the basic skeleton of the original, but there was too much '90s-style action and a few ill-conceived "comic relief" lines. We must remember that Matheson wrote many of those classic Roger Corman-Edgar Allan Poe-Vincent Price thrillers in the 1960s. He also wrote for THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and scripted the classic TV movies THE NIGHT STALKER and DRACULA with Jack Palance. Unfortunately, Matheson isn't enough of a "name" to write screenplays today, and as a result, great works like this one end up being turned into shit. Another thing: Arnold Schwarzenneger. He's just not believable as an everyman. The book is about CHARACTER. Not action. Not superheroics. CHARACTER. Robert Neville relies on his wits, using homemade wooden stakes. Arnold just doesn't strike me as an ordinary guy (I didn't believe those domestic scenes in TRUE LIES for one second). True, Matheson describes Neville as a big man, but I don't think that's a reason to cast Arnie. This role requires a real actor with whom the audience is sympathetic to. That's why the book has held up for over forty years.
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[1] don't dismiss 'the omega man' so quickly - rent it along with 'soylent green' and the first 'apes' and you've got a charlton heston cheese fest that's tasty and filling. [2] ideal cast and director for 'i am legend' (and don't go changin' protosevich's script, because it rocks): george clooney as neville, viggo mortensen as cortman, ronny yu ('bride of chucky') behind the camera.
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Perfect for this role? Harrison Ford. Got the mental AND the physical presence for this role. Either him or Jim Carrey.
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Can somebody please tell me why Arnold's accent hasn't gotten any better? I mean it's getting to the point where you can't even understand him anymore. Why is it that Lucy Lawless from Xena, who has a very thick New Zealand accent, can hide her accent perfectly, and Guy Pierce, who also has a heavy australian accent, was able to hide his accent, but people like Arnold or Jean Claude Van Damme keep stumbling over their accents.
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...I wouldn't mind seeing a Red Sonja 2...now that's a fun cheesy movie...I'm actually surprised one hasn't been made yet...or a Xena like TV show
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For all of you who haven't read it or didn't know it was online,
go here: http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/legend.txt -
unfortunately, the online script is badly formatted, the scene descriptions stretch beyond the window... what i did was "select all" "copy" and "paste" into Word..
it tidied up real nicely... -
What the fuck? Who asks questions like that, and does Rob Bowman really give an interview like he's auditioning in a high school play?! That magizine is a piece of shit.
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Hey buddy! You know why people like Arnold and Jean-Claude did not manage to improve their (American) English the same way Lucy Lawless and Guy Pierce did?
Well, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the latter already spoke English as a mother tongue (just another accent), while the former spoke German and French... -
I've seen both the Price and Heston films, and read the novel, and my advice is to rent the Vincent Price film. It isn't perfect, but it's a much truer adaptation than Omega Man. The protagonist should be an ordinary man - that's the whole point. Ordinary men don't look like Arnold. The film should be more psychological horror than action film. And the hero definately has to die in the end.
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I loved the novel; it is one of the few truly perfect pieces of horror fiction out there. I like Arnold; with good direction he can be very effective. But I found the Protosevitch script to be leaden and strangely uninteresting. It seemed less like what COULD have happened, and more like a screenwriter/fanboy wet dream of what SHOULD happen. If it was more like what COULD happen, then that fortress of a house wouldn't be anywhere nearly as well defended -- landmines and napalm my ass.... The whole thing just smacked of a way to blow things up onscreen and show neat-o makeup effects, when the BASIC STORY they had all along would have done just fine. And the ending with the subway... just ridiculous. My advice: Scrap the script, go back to the book, keep Arnold if they want to -- and write something that doesn't reek of cynicism and exploitation.
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I can't (and won't) believe that anyone who truly apreciates this book, and read the script and this interview, could possibly think that this movie will be any good. Before reading the script I already knew that it wasn't any good. Why? Because so many people said "IT ROCKED!!". This movie shouldn't "ROCK!!!". It's a fucking psychological drama! Sure there are a few action parts, like Neville trying to get home from the cemetary at dusk, but that part wasn't about the action it was about the nervousness and fear that he was feeling. It shouldn't be a big car chase action sequence. I am not worried about the director, but Arnold is a fucking joke. ABKing should try reading the fucking book (or reading period). Maybe then he would realize that the reason Arnold shouldn't be in it is because HES NOT RIGHT FOR THE PART. Wipe Arnold's nutsack sweat off of your chin and realize that not all movies have to be big stupid action flicks with huge explosions and mindless violence, and since thats all Arnold is good for maybe he isn't right for this story.
P.S. I would rather see this film not happen, than have it not be totally faithful to the book. This book is not too short for a film. If you give it to a person who knows how to pace a film, rather than rushing through the story just to get to the next action bit, It would make a great hour and a half to two hour film. I have no faith in this movie being done right. -
Who gives a rat's ass about things like storylines,they're for girls!!.Without KICKASS action and SFX,movies wouldn't make any money.You think STAR WARS WOULD HAVE BEEN A BIG HIT without SFX,SPACE BATTLES,SPACE SHIPS,LIGHTSABRES!!!!.Would it hell.Take all the SFX OUT OF star wars there's nothing left.Movies need KICKASS action,without it MATRIX would have been ignored.Only GIRLS care about STORYLINES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I've read the script but not the novel. The first half of Mark P's screenplay (with all the moody atmosphere and characterization) is really awesome, but the rest of it falls to pieces. Perhaps Matheson's plot worked when it debuted, but these days Mark P's storyline seems really hackneyed, formulaic, and disappointingly predictable/obvious. Almost every element we've seen before in other movies, and he doesn't really do anything new with those ingredients. It's like a darker rendition of the Emmerich style of cinematic regurgitation. There are elements of Escape From NY, Night of the Living Dead, Road Warrior, Into the Mouth of Madness, etc., climaxing with that awful subway train sequence and a lighthouse battle more ludicrous than the one in Final Analysis. This was all a huge disappointment, because the first sections of the script WOW'ed me, and got me to believe I was actually discovering a classic new masterpiece. It wound up like a Stephen J Cannell production. As for Ridley Scott and Rob Bowman? Scott's a master at moody style and visual gorgeousness, but not all that great with action sequences (his uber-macho bro Tony is slightly better at those). Bowman is a very high-quality hack with a lot of potential. I mean this in a nice way. He's the kind of guy Peter Hyams wishes he could be. Bowman went from great Parker Lewis episodes to one of the worst teen movies ever made - the ludicrously-bad Airborne. Then he moved into X-Files territory, and for all its faults, that movie was much smarter than most 90's sci-fi crap (Puppet Masters, Species). The X-Files movie also wisely chose to incorporate and emulate many of its ideas from proven genre classics - Raiders, Aliens, Parallax View, Hitchcock, etc... While hardly perfect, I admire their tastes in that they modelled their big-screen debut after formulas which most of us know and appreciate. Arnold Schwarzenegger's acting skills? While he was ideal in Terminator as a convenient tool for Cameron's cyborg mythology, one of Arnold's most impressive performances was actually in 1987's Predator. True, that movie was merely Rambo meets Aliens, but McTiernan's PERFECT cinematic style in that movie made it look as if Arnold was indeed the best, baddest-of-the-bad-ass commandos the US Special Forces had ever crafted AND that he was genuinely terrified of the mysterious hunter which was butchering his crew one by one. With that moody Silvestri score creeping me out in Dolby along with the luscious jungle ambience, the close-ups of Arnie's eyes and face do a convincing job of creating a strong-yet-scared "performance" out of an otherwise wooden mass of muscle. If Bowman can learn from McTiernan's shining example of how to cinematically fudge some "acting" out of a likable-yet-moodless lug, Arnold could be back on track for an awesome resurgence. Unfortunately, End of Days and Tooth Fairy will do much damage to that man's career. EOD will be as bad as Raw Deal, and Tooth Fairy worse than Junior.
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Hope this topic isn't old hat by now; I would have posted sooner but A.I.C. took 3 days to get my password back to me. In the meantime, lots of really intelligent things hvae been said, and my thunder's been stolen out from under me. Almost didn't post-after all, isn't that the point, to be the first to have the witty, insightful comments and impress the NetGirls/Guys. Still. it's good to know that I'm on target with what I had PLANNED on saying, which, summed up, is:
1.) I AM LEGEND is a great story, and, as usual, it's in the hands of a tribe of crack monkeys known as Hollywood executives.
2.) Mark P's Script starts out great..he really turned the story into something cinematic. The first couple chapters of the novella, Neville doesn't even speak-that would be a great film in my opinion-btw-underscoring the loneliness and desperation-but I don't think the teens at the mulitplex would sit still for it. You oldsters can go rent "the Quiet Earth" a New Zealand 80's film about the last man on Earth. Instead, Mark's script cleverly makes Neville talk to himself, the dog, and even try a radio broadcast. (which I think is very funny, and shows how he is beginning to crack up-go read the script if you haven't already.)
Mark even makes the vamps clever enough to build a sunlight-proof sniper's nest and lure him into a trap...putting Neville's opponents on par with him, which is much more interesting than making them mindless DUSK TILL DAWN killing machines-these are former humans, and that makes Neville's job even harder. You can see the desperation in Mark's version of Neville.
3.) Mark's 2nd half starts to suck-it goes from psychological thriller to B action movie-although there's gonna have to be SOME action, kids-it is a vampire movie. Mark's choice to change to the humans-as-fodder storyline and the happy ending smell like typical Syd Field 101/Robert "I've never written a script, but I'll teach you how for $1700" McKee's frormulamatic writing workshops. How 'bout a "down" ending like the book ? How 'bout taking a risk ?
4.) Arnold Schwartzenegger ? ARNOLD SCHWARTENEGGER ? What the hell are they smoking ?????? Arnie's got the emotional range and depth of cheese doodles. Why let him stick his fingers into to every pie in town just because he makes 1 good movie. He played a ROBOT, for f***'s sake-don't you guys get the joke ? As someone else has already so eloquently pointed out-this is the LAST GUY ON EARTH-his carachter is filled with dark humor, on-the-brink-of-madness tension, addiction, grief, remorse, and about 100 other emotions that Arnie hasn't even READ about. You want a pumped-up guy who can fight and shoot guns ? Fine. But how about one that can bring pathos, heart, and dark introspection to the role, as it deserves ? I'm talkng about Mr. NICHOLAS CAGE. He proved himself an action hero in Con Air, The Rock, and Face Off. He's shown us Oscar-caliber human suffering in Leaving Las Vegas. Somebody get on the phone with this guy's agent and tell them to get involved.
Peace.
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