Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend is one of the most influential stories in genre fiction, inspiring three hit movies – The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man and I Am Legend – and, depending on who you talk to, indirectly or even directly inspiring the entire zombie genre. The story of the last human being on the planet, fighting off nightly attacks by the vampires who have taken over the Earth, is a stark and thrilling tale of isolation, and even though the 2007 adaptation changed the film’s ending (rendering the title all but meaningless), it was expected to spawn a sequel starring Will Smith after grossing over $585 million worldwide.
And now… it’s getting rebooted instead.
Yes, Warner Bros. will rewrite an original screenplay by Gary Graham called A Garden at the End of the World, which has similar themes and story elements, into a reboot of I Am Legend. Will Smith is not expected to return. So says Deadline, a publication which somehow forgot to mention Richard Matheson or his original work in any capacity.
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This would seem to reflect Warner Bros.’ mindset, brushing over the whole reason I Am Legend exists in the first place in favor of something that they can turn into an exploitable franchise, instead of a horrifying and potent tale with a meaningful, conclusive ending. Because no one likes those, right?
While we remain ever optimistic that every film we report on will be good, it’s hard not to feel a pain of disappointment that the studio which owns the rights to make I Am Legend movies has more interest in the name than the source material. That’s Hollywood for you. Four movies in (and one unofficial Asylum version called I Am Omega), and 60 years later, and no one has ever adapted Richard Matheson’s enormously cinematic book faithfully.
We’ve mentioned this before at CraveOnline, but it really is disconcerting that Hollywood is more interested in adapting new books faithfully than treating classic fiction with that same respect. God help anyone if they get something in the Harry Potter movies wrong, but I Am Legend – a groundbreaking work with a cemented legacy – is for some reason fair game for undoing. It’s one thing to subvert the material or use it as a launching pad for something satirical – the upcoming Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes to mind – but to simply repackage something new under the title of a classic work and pass it off as the real deal is bound to be offensive to fans of the original.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
