Is the ‘Logan’s Run’ remake back on track?

A remake of ‘Logan’s Run’ has been in the works for the better part of two decades, the last attempt was in 2004 and was to be directed by Bryan Singer. Now it looks like Warner Bros. is making another try as a new director, Carl Rinsch, is in talks to take the project on.

Carl Rinsch is a very successful commercials director and, you may remember, was the original director who was supposed to direct the ‘Alien’ prequel before Ridley Scott took it over. He gained a huge amount of notoriety in Hollywood when he took part in, electronics giant, Philip’s short film experiment Parallel Lines. His entry, ‘The Gift’ became an instant success (you can watch it below). Hollywood execs even want to adapt it into a feature film and now Rinsch is aiming for a career in features. As well as the ‘Alien’ prequel, Rinsch is involved in a film called ’47 Ronin’ for Universal. The question now is, which film will mark his feature debut, ‘Small’ (the feature project based on ‘The Gift’), ’47 Ronin’ or ‘Logan’s Run’?

For the youngsters in the crowd, ‘Logan’s Run’ is a sci-fi story based on the 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. The premise is; in the future, to control the size of the population everyone over 21 is killed. When you reach ‘end date’ you report to a Sleep Center where they are destroyed. If they fail to report to a Sleep Center, they become ‘Runners’ and they are hunted by the secret police called ‘The Sandmen’. The Runners hope to find a place called Sanctuary, a place they can safely live out the rest of their lives. Logan 3 is a Sandman who becomes a Runner himself in an attempt to infiltrate an apparent underground railroad for runners seeking Sanctuary — a place where they can live freely in defiance of society’s dictates. He becomes sympathetic towards the Runners when he falls in love with Jessica 5 and ends up running for real.

The novel was adapted to film in 1974 by Michael Anderson and starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Farrah Fawcett, Peter Ustinov and Richard Jordan. The film only used the basic premise and characters to fashion a very different plot. The film is a dated but enjoyable sci-fi adventure film. In 1977, it was also turned into a TV series that only lasted one season. The series was a spin off of the movie not the novel.

Warner Bros. has been trying to remake ‘Logan’s Run’ since the mid 90’s. Other directors who have been attached to the project include, Robert Schwentke (‘Flightplan’), James McTeigue (‘V for Vendetta’) and Joseph Kosinski (‘Tron Legacy’). I don’t know what direction the remake is going to take but I always liked the screen story more than the novel’s story – just my opinion.

What do you think? Do you want to see a ‘Logan’s Run’ remake? Comment Below.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3 comments

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    • Dave on November 30, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    I enjoyed the movie until I read the book. Having read William F. Nolan’s books, I feel the 1976 movie was pretty stupid, and did not mirror the world in Nolan’s prose. It would have been tremendously costly to shoot a feature film true to the book without CGI (as it was in ’76), so I understand why the movie had to be different, but the movie really butchered the book, changed things that didn’t need to be changed, and created confusion in some parts. The 1976 production simply runs out of gas about halfway through. The end sequence where Logan’s computer interrogation results in the whole domed city blowing up – oh man – come on!

  1. I agree, I was upset just reading about the book. I was going to read it. Maybe, I still will, since it’s an old book.

  2. That was smart to make them 21. I couldn’t find a sufficient|complete plot online, so I was wondering if it would mirror the original. This seems to be more pre-planned yet still as big as the “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” “remake.” That one didn’t mirror the original, at all, artistically speaking, but it was just as important a movie. I don’t think this is as big as “Star Wars.” I know “Ender’s Game” is being made starring Abigail Breslin. I haven’t read that book. I think this movie is a little disillusioning. I’m guessing it’s all pulled from the book and is disheartening to me.

    I see there is an option to upload a picture. Here’s mine: http://io9.com/5648293/logans-run-depicted-as-a-giant-lego-diorama It made me wonder where they are running, like if supposedly all these tunnels and things exist, the memory escapes me and not sure if I ever grasped the scenery of it, why do they have to die? I want to be a movie star in movie theaters, but, if I had a working job, I figured a valuable one would be Aerospace Engineering. There are lots of interesting stories on alternate forms of death. What do you think of “The Last Unicorn?” I still have to read that, but I suppose everyone in their 20s and 30s knows the cartoon.

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