A coworker asked me the other day if the film I’ve been calling “Will Smiff Is Legend” is based on something else. I explained that it was a book, which then spawned two different movie adaptations: “The Last Man on Earth” and “The Omega Man.” This new version has an interesting pedigree, in that it was once going to be an Arnold Schwarzeneggar remake of “The Omega Man” until that fell through, and ALSO once an “I Am Legend” until THAT fell through as well. Then they got some of the people involved with both to kind of work together on this final version incorporating the good bits from each.
I’m not quite sure what to make of “Will Smiff Is Legend.” On the one hand, all the shots I’ve seen of it look fantastic and I know Will is a great actor who—provided the script calls for it—will be able to pull off the ‘grizzled, lonely, and angry’ that encompasses the story. On the other hand, though, I keep picturing him with a sideways gun saying “aww HELL no” while bustin’ caps into zompires from his motorcycle in slow motion. Call me equal parts excited and reluctant. (Also, is it even going to HAVE zompires? Remember in Jonathan Coulton’s fantastic song RE: Your Brains, how the guy’s zombified coworkers try to plead with him to come out because all they want to do is eat him? That’s straight out of “I Am Legend,” except the zombies in question were kind of a halfway-point between zombie and vampire; they rise from the grave and eat brains, but can be staked through the heart to kill them. Plus they’re smart.)
On the subject of prior film adaptations, I highly, HIGHLY recommend the 1964 Vincent Price version entitled “The Last Man on Earth.” It’s a truly great film that I think does a good job of capturing the mood of the book while adding a few new things as well. The new ending they came up with is probably one of my favorite endings of all time, which leads me to believe “Will Smiff Is Legend” will not use it ;) On the plus side, the film is now in the Public Domain, meaning you can download it off the internet with impunity. If instantaneous blocky streaming flash video is your thing it can be found here on Google Video. If nicer quality—and therefore a longer, more complicated download process—is more your thing, it can be found here on The Pirate Bay without any fear of legal repercussions because this film was allowed to fall out of copyright like copyright law intended. Yay for properly functioning copyright law.
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