What If Production: "I Am Legend" (1976)

What If Production is a new segment to Continuity Film that hypothetically matches a project to a filmmaker and/or actor.

This week’s segment will detail Richard Matheson’s landmark horror novel, “I Am Legend.”

Background:

-Richard Matheson’s novel was published in 1954 and it took place in the near-future (1976-79).

-The novel was “loosely” adapted twice: in “The Last Man on Earth” (1964) & “The Omega Man” (1971).

-Warner Brothers owned rights to the book and John William Carrington and Joyce Hooper Carrington co-wrote an adaptation in 1971 (which, coincidentally, was used as a primer when Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman adapted it in 2007).

-The 2007 version starring Will Smith is a terrible rendition of a fantastic novel. They made the film a starring vehicle for Mr. Smith. Unfortunately, the source material is far bigger than Mr. Smith, not the other way around. They basically took the core concept (the last man on earth surrounded by vampires) and gutted the rest of the details. DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE. Read the book.

What if?

-The actor playing Robert Neville in 1976 would have to be the following:

-FROM "...a tall man, thirty-six, born of English-German stock...long, determined mouth and bright blue eyes..." (14)

-TO "...a bigger, more relaxed Neville...an evenly paced hermit life had increased his weight to 230 pounds. His face was full, his body broad and muscular underneath the loose-fitting denim he wore...only rarely did he crop his thick blond beard, so that it remained two or three inches from his skin...his hair was thinning, long and straggly..." (120).

Looking back on the period, I narrowed down my search to 3 Actors, the central question being, "Who has the chops and the look?":

-Robert Redford, 40.
-Jon Voight, 38.
-Clint Eastwood, 46.

-I originally had it down to 4, Jeff Bridges (27), being the last, but I deemed him too “unknown” at the time to carry this movie.

Again, looking back on the period, I narrowed down my search to 3 Directors:

-William Friedkin [“The French Connection” (1971) & “The Exorcist” (1973)]
-John Boorman [“Deliverance” (1972)]
-Steven Spielberg [“Jaws” (1975)]

Back to the actors: They needed to be bearded.

-Redford [“Jeremiah Johnson” (1972)]
-Voight [“Coming Home” (1978) combined with his performance in “Deliverance” (1972)]
-Eastwood [“The Outlaw Josey Wales” (1976)]

Out of those three actors, I would have to cancel out Redford, b/c honestly, I think he was too much of a pretty-boy and he wouldn’t be convincing enough as the gruff Robert Neville.

It’s down to Eastwood and Voight.

Hmmm. I have to take a closer look at the Directors before I do a final pairing.

-Friedkin made WB a ton of money for “The Exorcist” and Boorman made “Deliverance” for WB, as well.

-Spielberg had his heart set-on “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) during that period, but, he could’ve always moved that back.

Imagine the pairing of Spielberg and Eastwood. That would’ve been spectacular. Sure, some of you may say, why not have Eastwood direct Eastwood? Well, at the time, he was still flexing his muscles in the director’s chair and I don’t think WB would’ve given him the opportunity to prove otherwise b/c he didn’t have a high degree of clout (and Clint was ensconced in directing westerns and thrillers anyway).

-Boorman worked with Voight on “Deliverance”, so they had some past chemistry there. But, Boorman had just directed a critical and box-office flop with “Zardoz” (1974), a bizarro-SF-fantasy film starring a scantily-clad Sean Connery.

Let’s just say that Boorman’s performance would’ve cancelled him out, in that case, let’s cancel out Voight too.

-That leaves us with Friedkin and Eastwood. Why not? Friedkin was coming off a string of critical and box-office smashes, he was at the top of his game, so to speak, and WB would’ve trusted him to turn-out a great film. Remember, at the time, tentpole summer blockbusters weren’t the norm, the Industry was still figuring out the wild success (possibly, isolated incident) that was “Jaws”, and this was before “Star Wars” changed everything.

So, there we are. We have Friedkin directing and Clint Eastwood starring.

There are long gaps of silence in the film and Eastwood, after having been The Man Without a Name (and a voice) in Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western Trilogy, would’ve been ideal to play the silent, brooding Robert Neville.

Back to the Adaptation.

Instead of disgracefully setting the film in Manhattan (like the 2007 version), the film should follow closely to the book.

Los Angeles, north of Compton. A low-rent area. Suburbs. Sprawling city.

1976: no cell-phones, no internet, no GPS, no satellite TV, nothing.

Barebones isolation, just like in the book.

In terms of the feel/pace: imagine the first 15 silent minutes of "There Will Be Blood" (2007) combined with the island-isolation of Tom Hanks in "Cast Away" (2000).

With all of these hypothetical elements now matched, I think "I Am Legend" (1976), directed by William Friedkin, starring Clint Eastwood, would've had the potential to be a landmark horror film.

Just like the book was.