I am Legend Tagged Articles at Cinematical

There's just something about watching the whole world go boom on the big screen, isn't there? Case in point: Independence Day. Sure, not exactly what you would call a great film, but I think most of us were sold on the flick the moment we saw the White House go up in a ball of fire. It might be twisted, but audiences just can't get enough of the end of civilization; Roland Emmerich went with a Mayan doomsday prophecy for his disaster flick, 2012, but I Am Legend's Francis Lawrence is going for something a little more scientific for his next film. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Fox has hired Lawrence to direct a feature film version of Alan Weisman's book, The World Without Us.

Weisman's book focuses on what would happen to the natural and built environment if humans suddenly disappeared. Sure, the whole thing is an educated guess based on Weisman's interviews with leading academics and scientists, but as educated guesses go, it's pretty good. So if you've ever wondered how long it would take for this civilization of ours to die out, here is your answer, and the bad news is that it won't take long at all. On the upside, though, at least Mount Rushmore would still be standing.

Mark Protosevich has been hired to write the script before heading off to work on the Oldboy update for Dreamworks. But Fox doesn't intend to make a documentary (which was done* once before) and instead Protosevich's script will make use of Weisman's science as the background for the story. I have to admit, Lawrence would seen to be the ideal choice for the flick -- especially since his vision of the world left behind in Legend was possibly the best thing about that film.

But this has me thinking: what are some of the best 'End of the Word' flicks? I'll even start you off with one of my nominations: Dr. Strangelove. Now it's your turn...


*Correction: The link provided for The World Without Us documentary was an error, and was not meant to make any political associations with Weisman's work.

Apocalypse you say? Then armageddon outta here. Whether it's war, pestilence or one of the other Four Horsemen, the end of civilization as we know it has been a recurring theme since the beginning of science fiction cinema. This Friday sees the release of Knowing, a film in which a looming global cataclysm plays a major role -- so let's take a look back at seven films with different versions of how it will all end.

I Am Legend (2007)
Let's start with one that's still fresh in everyone's mind. In this film based on the Richard Matheson novel, Will Smith plays Robert Neville who, at the start of the film anyway, appears to be the last man on Earth thanks to his immunity to the virus that has stricken everyone else. The majority of the population has died from the disease, while the remainder have been mutated into animalistic rage-driven creatures who fear the daylight. Neville is a virologist and spends his days looking for a cure and his nights locked away in the safety of his Manhattan home.

It's interesting that this is one of the few such films where the end of civilization is not brought on by an act of aggression, but by a noble cause: a man-made virus intended to cure cancer that goes horribly wrong. The film is entertaining, but personally I find the CGI Darkseekers distractingly unconvincing. They leap around as if they have no weight and when they shriek their jaws distend like an anaconda swallowing a pig. Also, the film's original ending, which you can see on the DVD, made a lot more sense to me. Of the previous adaptations of the novel, The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price remains my favorite. Charlton Heston's The Omega Man has its moments but hasn't aged well and starts to run out of steam early on.

I don't want to believe; that's part of it. But really: Total Recall? Weird and scary and totally singular Total Recall? The one with the people being turned into mutants by cosmic rays and the villain who turns Martians into slaves by controlling the air supply? The one where that dude takes off his glove to reveal that holy crap, he's a mutant too? And the three boobs? Remember the three boobs?

Okay, I'm obviously working out some issues here, the main one being that I saw Total Recall as a very young boy and it scared and confused the ever-loving bejeezus out of me (in the best possible way, natch). But really, there's no way to remake Verhoeven's bizarro masterpiece, as I Am Legend (and Made of Honor!) producer Neal H. Moritz claims he's going to do. They might re-adapt the Philip K. Dick story, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," but that's a different matter. Dick adaptations are a dime a dozen. So, Mr. Moritz, I don't believe you. Shouldn't you be busy getting The Green Hornet off the ground, anyway? Go wrangle Michel Gondry.

I note, also, that as best I can tell no Arnold Schwarzenegger movie has ever been remade. This may be because people have been physically afraid of him, in which case his advancing age, along with a distinguished civil service career that would make it unseemly for him to murder five men with his bare hands (and surely the man would never stoop to a contract job), may increase the odds of a Total Recall redo. Another possibility involves a combination of two factors: a) Arnold Schwarzenegger movies are always and forever Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, and b) the notion of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie with some girly man who is not Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Arnold Schwarzenegger role is patently absurd. People would just laugh. Right? That's why this never went anywhere two years ago, right?

Since it looks like we're going to get some sort of I Am Legend prequel or sequel down the road, leading to what could be a new, hip movie franchise featuring Will Smith, why not spend some time this holiday season with the newer original remake (that sounds weird, right?), and learn a bit more about the mythology behind the film. I know a lot of people aren't too keen on I Am Legend (The Smith Version), though I kinda dug it on my first viewing. Granted, I didn't see the film until it hit Blu-ray last year, and I watched it with the alternate (and better, in my opinion) ending, but ultimately I thought it was a fine, entertaining little creepshow.

Those willing to give the film a second chance (or watch it for the first time) might want to dive into this pretty nifty Ultimate Collector's Edition, in stores December 9th on DVD and Blu-ray. The latter edition arrived at my shack yesterday and I have to say it's a pretty neat little toy. You can purchase the collection on DVD for $39.95 over here and on Blu-ray for $47.95 over here. Check out what you get:

Blu-ray:

• 3-Disc Special Edition DVD
• Exclusive 44-Page Concept Sketch Book
• 10 Concept Illustrations
• 6 Art Cards Showing International Cities Devastated by the Plague
Virus
• Collectible Lenticular
• Letter from the Director
• New Movie Commentary by Director Francis Lawrence and
Screenwriter/Producer Akiva Goldsman

More after the jump ...

Just so we're clear: I liked I Am Legend. I thought Will Smith did a great job of carrying what was (to be honest) a fairly mediocre film. But c'mon, was there really anything left to say? Warner Brothers is convinced that there is, and have even managed to bring back Smith and director Francis Lawrence for what we all thought was going to be a prequel. However, a tipster for AICN (who goes by the name of Westwood9) has dropped a few crumbs about the project, and if you thought the idea of a prequel was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet.

According to AICN's tipster, "Smith is actually the one who developed the initial story. It took place several years before the original film and there were still pockets of survivors and the story centered around Smith interacting, bonding, and ultimately failing to save them." Not bad, right? Well, don't get too attached, because according to AICN, the studio wasn't biting (get it?) and, instead, scrapped the prequel in favor of a sequel. That's right, an honest to goodness sequel. Supposedly Smith and screenwriter D. B. Weiss weren't going to go for it either, but have since come around to the idea.

When the project was first announced back in September, I think most of us had just assumed that the only way to make another film was to make a prequel. *Spoiler Alert* After all, didn't the good doctor blow up at the end of the film? (There were of course those alternate endings, but we probably shouldn't count those). If WB does go ahead with a sequel, do you think it will open up a whole new world of possibilities about what happened to Smith's character at the end of the first film? Or, will it just confirm that the whole idea is just a cash-grab from the word go.

Sound off below...

I might not be the biggest fan of prison movies (well, except Cool Hand Luke), but anything that could keep Francis Lawrence busy and away from an I Am Legend prequel is all right by me. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Lawrence has just signed to helm the story of the 1987 Atlanta Prison Riots for Warner Brothers. Black Hawk Down writer Mark Bowden came across the still-untitled project while researching Black Hawk, but did not have the time or resources to devote to the story. So here we are eight years later, and Bowden has enlisted the help of his brother, Aaron, to produce the film under the Wild Eyes banner.

For those of you who are a little fuzzy on their penal history, here's a primer on what Lawrence will be working with: In 1987, the Atlanta State Medium Security Prison was one of the dumping grounds for Cuban refugees from the Mariel Boatlift who were ineligible to be released. When Cuba later agreed to repatriate 2500 inmates currently being held -- well, to be blunt, all holy hell broke loose. The ensuing riot lasted over 10 days with more than 100 hostages involved -- heck, inmates even burned down a substantial portion of the facility itself. In the end, it took the intervention of the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta to end the siege. Sounds pretty exciting, doesn't it?

But the bad news is that before Lawrence can get to work in the big house, he still has to finish developing Sara Gruen's historical novel, Water for Elephants for Fox 2000. Now if we could just do something about that Legend prequel ...

...and by SEs I mean big, fat, loaded mega-special editions of the studio's most popular stuff. And when WB delivers a Special Edition, they generally don't mess around. (Unlike some home video distributors *koff Universal* who throw the SE term around willy-nilly.) Just a quick scan through my mega-awesome DVD collection reveals WB SEs like Goodfellas, Dirty Harry, Amadeus, The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, Superman, and a whole bunch more. If there's a catalog title you love, you should pray it gets the WB 2-disc SE treatment.

And a bunch more are on the way! According to Video Business, WB plans to double its SE output moving forward, and while we don't have any specs just yet, we do know that the following titles will be available (in fancy form) later this year: 300 (yes already, even though I thought the first 2-discer was pretty damn excellent), Casablanca (also again, but if any film deserves it...), A Christmas Story (cool!), JFK (a movie I need to see again), and I Am Legend. Come to think of it, all five of these movies already have Special Edition releases! These new discs better be pretty dang impressive.

Also on the way: The Peanuts Complete Holiday Collection. Which I definitely will own.

After a long, hard-fought battle, the second official trailer for The Dark Knight took home top honors at this year's Golden Trailer Awards (with a margin of victory of 44%). The contest, held over at USA Today, tallied votes on films from several different categories -- all of which were chosen as this year's Golden Trailer winners earlier in the month. Among the top trailers users had a chance to vote on were Enchanted (Best Animation/Family), Tropic Thunder (Best Comedy), Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (Best Documentary), No Country for Old Men (Best Drama), I am Legend (Best Horror) and Iron Man (Summer 2008 Blockbuster), among others. While there are certainly other trailers I would've picked to win their respective category (Pineapple Express, for one), I think we can probably all agree that The Dark Knight trailer is definitely tops.

Check out the trailer one more time above, then head on over to USA Today to see what else was nominated (as well as the official site for The Golden Trailer Awards). In your opinion, does anything beat The Dark Knight?

Are films political? Do they fall into left-wing and right-wing camps? I would imagine that not all films have an agenda. Some films can be considered "great uniters," in that they bring together agreeing audiences from all over, films like the $200 million hits I Am Legend (264 screens) and National Treasure: Book of Secrets (177 screens) or a critical favorite like There Will Be Blood (339 screens) that has pleased nearly everyone who has seen it. Of course, There Will Be Blood is about a snaky, sinister, blustery oil baron willing to sacrifice his family, country and humanity for the allure of black gold, which may or may not have a little something to do with current events. (Not to mention that director Paul Thomas Anderson dropped the word "Oil" from the title of the source novel and replaced it with the word "Blood.")

In recent years it has been determined that film critics are a liberal bunch, educated, well-read men and women of letters, who can see and comprehend the human condition in films from different cultures all over the world. Or, they're sometimes known as pompous, ponderous, pretentious, conceited, snooty know-it-alls, lacking in good old-fashioned horse sense. "Why can't you just enjoy the movie," is a question very often asked of critics. Rambo (201 screens) is a fascinating case. It's impressively violent, but very grim and not much fun. Rambo debuted and reigned during the Reagan era (Rambo: First Blood Part II grossed three times the amount of the new film, even with 1985 ticket prices). Bringing him back in a decidedly different political atmosphere didn't seem to work, though the film was screened for the press and earned a few good reviews. It's now starting a downslide, and it's still shy of breaking even on its $50 million budget.

Enchanted
The yester-year of Disney animation is long in the past, and while you probably won't be getting any epic, artistically-driven Sleeping Beauty-type features any time soon, Enchanted offers those old classic scenes with characters ripped out of the cartoon world and delivered to a crazy and manic Manhattan. Amy Adams' Giselle becomes the victim of her soon-to-be stepmother-in-law's evilness and gets transported to the real world, where life isn't animated and the world is very, very different. From there, we've got cartoon Prince Charmings with James Marsden, who comes to save her, and real life beaus with McDreamy Patrick Dempsey. Oh yes, and of course -- Susan Sarandon as evil mommie dearest doing her best reincarnation of Maleficent.

This is your normal Disney DVD -- there are deleted scenes, bloopers, behind-the-scenes featurettes about the film's "cinematic wizardry," and a pop-up adventure with Pip, Giselle's little friend.

Check out Kim's Review | Buy the DVD