Fitzgerald Fortune
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I AM LEGEND trailer
The trailer for the new film based on Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND is now online:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/iamlegend/large.html
I can't say that I'm very excited about this, despite Matheson's novel being one of my favourite books. However, it looks better than I expected it to look.
I just wish it had gone in to production when Ridley Scott was attached as the director, and big Ahnuld was attached as the star. Still, I'll reserve judgement until I've seen the full film.
--- 'Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy'.
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6/10/2007, 9:32 pm
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algy
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Re: I AM LEGEND trailer
Finally found time to read it: excellent, excellent, excellent.
Will Smith?
Mmm...
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6/29/2007, 2:20 pm
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Djjaines
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Re: I AM LEGEND trailer
I have to say, I don't like it so far, I mean ... in the book there's no evacuation, or airplanes blowing up bridges ... Robert Neville is white (not being racist but he makes racist remarks) ... he has a pickup truck not a sportscar, and even when that gets ruined i'm pretty sure he doesn't pick a sports car anyway, he picks a car that'll help him survive from the vampiric disease ...
I really hope Hollywood doesn't shaft this film from the beautifully done original.
---
Daniel: Master of malapropisms and Danisms.
Danism: Using stupid sounding or vague descriptions to put what may be an intellectual point across.
Beatrice: You really put the "W" in anchorman don't you?
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6/29/2007, 4:03 pm
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algy
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Re: I AM LEGEND trailer
He has a station wagon - an estate car. I don't think his ethnicity is ever stated, and it really doesn't matter. And a devestating war is alluded to; can't expect Hollywood to give up on the chance of big bangs.
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6/29/2007, 4:08 pm
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Edge44
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Re: I AM LEGEND trailer
Hollywood equation that most writers and directors must stick to: spectacle x spectacle = blockbuster. They will never change this equation because it translates too efficiently into dollars.
Unfortunately, I Am Legend will be no different.
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"Everything's relative..."
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6/29/2007, 4:42 pm
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Djjaines
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Re: I AM LEGEND trailer
I know it's just very very Grite that way.
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Daniel: Master of malapropisms and Danisms.
Danism: Using stupid sounding or vague descriptions to put what may be an intellectual point across.
Beatrice: You really put the "W" in anchorman don't you?
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6/29/2007, 11:48 pm
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Djjaines
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Re: I AM LEGEND trailer
DR NEVILLE?? WTF! He's a factory worker not a doctor... it's the small things that make a character ... I'm definitely starting to worry now.
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Daniel: Master of malapropisms and Danisms.
Danism: Using stupid sounding or vague descriptions to put what may be an intellectual point across.
Beatrice: You really put the "W" in anchorman don't you?
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12/21/2007, 11:30 am
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Edge44
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Re: I AM LEGEND trailer
The trailer is perfectly structured to draw you in and create heaps of anticipation - that's what trailers do. The sad fact is that not many trailers reflect how good or bad the actual films will be. Some trailers are awesome while the films they advertise are crap. I've watched the I AM LEGEND trailer in HD and, I have to say, some of the CGI looks quite poor.
I'm in the same frame of mind: Will Smith as Neville? From a writer and film-maker's point of view, the book cannot be adapted as is; it requires updating for a contemporary audience, and the only positive note is that it hasn't been dumbed down for the 12A audience, it's a 15, I think. Actually, that's not really that positive, is it 
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12/21/2007, 12:16 pm
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Fitzgerald Fortune
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Re: I AM LEGEND trailer
quote:
Edge44 wrote:
I'm in the same frame of mind: Will Smith as Neville? From a writer and film-maker's point of view, the book cannot be adapted as is;
Outside Hollywood, I'm sure someone could make a pretty good stab at a fairly literal adaptation of the novel. Taking the narrative out of its social context means that it loses some of its central themes: the social idealism of the 1950s and the stereotypical idealised representation of suburban America during that period. (These are all themes that shine in Matheson's work for THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and I think STIR OF ECHOES represented a pretty good attempt at translating these themes to something that's workable for the audience for a Hollywood picture.)
I don't think the novel necessarily has to be 'updated' for a modern audience: if the film was an independent production featuring someone like Peter Weller (wouldn't he be perfect for the role of Neville?) it could retain its 1950s setting. However, in the context of a Hollywood blockbuster starring Will Smith, the audience for such a picture will expect an action-oriented film with a modern-day setting: this is part of how the material is 'dumbed down', because by changing the context for the narrative the thematic content of the film will prove to be radically different from Matheson's novel, and by inserting action setpieces you lose the timbre of the narrative.
(Playing with the idea of demographics, as Hollywood has for the last thirty years, will always mean that material is 'dumbed down', because effectively you're relying on age-based, class-based and gender-based stereotypes, and you're privileging the economic imperative over the content of the text. The uncritical acceptance of the concept of 'demographics' says a lot about modern society, I think: with one breath, we criticise stereotypes, and with the next breath we use those stereotypes as the basis for our economic endeavours.)
Ideally, the following would be true of any adaptation of I AM LEGEND: the novel's ending would be retained, there would be no action setpieces, the film would retain its period setting and the lead actor would be middle-aged--and not a comedian or action film star. Within the context of a Hollywood blockbuster (such as this film), it wouldn't be good 'business sense'; but in the context of an independent picture, it would work perfectly.
The sad fact is: when was the last time you saw an independent film at the cinema? Whereas during the 1990s it was fairly easy for independent films to find distribution and to be shown at the pictures, now it seems that the advent of DVD has meant that most independent pictures go straight to DVD: the DVD format and the growth of the multiplex has led to a consolidation of Hollywood's position, and just like in the 1930s and 1940s we're at a state in which Hollywood has once again monopolised film exhibition--and thus every film, whether Hollywood-financed or not, looks like a bloated big-budget product of Hollywood's cinema of spectacle. (Check out the straight-to-video independent releases of this decade: they're all Hollywood-ised 'calling cards', aping Hollywood's conventions rather than challenging them. Not long ago, independent film once offered a strong challenge to Hollywood, and provided something for people who didn't like Hollywood's emphasis on spectacle and visual pleasures; that's no longer the case.)
--- 'Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy'.
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12/21/2007, 1:06 pm
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