hob, Arnie was pencilled in to play the lead in a remake of "The Omega Man". I copied this excerpt from Wiki
Actors Tom Cruise, Michael Douglas, and Mel Gibson had been considered to star in the film, using a script by Protosevich and with Ridley Scott as director; however, by June 1997 the studio's preference was for actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In July, Scott and Schwarzenegger finalized negotiations, with production slated to begin the coming September, using Houston as a stand-in for the film's setting of Los Angeles. Scott had Protosevich replaced by a screenwriter of his own choosing, John Logan, with whom he spent months of intensive work on a number of different drafts. The Scott/Logan version of I Am Legend was a mix of sci-fi and psychological thriller, without dialogue in the first hour and with a sombre ending. The creatures in Logan's version were similar to the Darkseekers of the finished film in their animalistic, barbaric nature. The studio, fearing its lack of commercial appeal and merchandising potential, began to worry about the liberties they had given Scott – then on a negative streak of box office disappointments – and urged the production team to reconsider the lack of action in the screenplay. After an "esoteric" draft by writer Neal Jimenez, Warner Bros. reassigned Protosevich to the project, reluctantly working with Scott again.
In December 1997, the project was called into question when the projected budget escalated to $108 million due to media and shareholder scrutiny of the studio in financing a big-budget film. Scott rewrote the script in an attempt to reduce the film's budget by $20 million, but in March 1998, the studio canceled the project due to continued budgetary concerns, and quite possibly to the box office disappointment of Scott's last three films, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, White Squall, and G.I. Jane. Likewise, Schwarzenegger's recent films at the time (Eraser and Warner Bros. own Batman & Robin) also underperformed, and the studio's latest experiences with big budget sci-fi movies Sphere and The Postman were negative as well. In August 1998, director Rob Bowman was attached to the project, with Protosevich hired to write a third all-new draft, far more action-oriented than his previous versions, but the director (who reportedly wished for Nicolas Cage to play the lead) moved on to direct Reign of Fire and the project did not get off the ground.
In March 2002, Schwarzenegger became the producer of I Am Legend, commencing negotiations with Michael Bay to direct and Will Smith to star in the film. Bay and Smith were attracted to the project based on a redraft that would reduce its budget. However, the project was shelved due to Warner Bros. president, Alan F. Horn's dislike of the script. In 2004, Akiva Goldsman was asked by head of production Jeff Robinov to produce the film. In September 2005, director Francis Lawrence signed on to helm the project, with production slated to begin in 2006. Guillermo del Toro was originally approached to direct by Smith but turned it down in order to direct Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Lawrence, whose film Constantine was produced by Goldsman, was fascinated by empty urban environments. He said, "Something's always really excited me about that... to have experienced that much loss, to be without people or any kind of social interaction for that long."
The internet is for lonely people. People should live. Charlton Heston
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HighClassHaddock
10 years ago
Stone isn't a bad director, technically speaking. He's just a dishonest, lying piece of human filth who should be crucified with jagged rusty nails on splintery boards, dumped on a midden heap someplace and left to die in slow agony with his vocal chords slit so he can't scream about any more fake conspiracies.
Did Oliver Stone kill your budgie, hob?
I don't particularly like the man but I would have paid to see the Arnie vs the Apes movie that never actually got off the ground. I thought it sounded an interesting project.
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hobnob53
10 years ago
Os: Have you reflected on the irony of your reprinting three long paragraphs about a movie that was never made while maintaining a signature line that reads, The internet is for lonely people. People should live.?
But thank you for the information. I didn't doubt it, just had never heard such a thing. But given Arnie's being preoccupied with governing California, he couldn't have done the flick by the mid-2000s. I still think he would have been not only wrong for, but totally uninteresting in, I Am Legend.
Haddock: Arnie vs. the Apes would have been better than Arnie vs. zombies. Even so, that doesn't mean it would have been good.
Incidentally, I just finished watching Planet of the Apes on TCM here. It was preceded by King Kong and succeeded by Beneath the Planet of the Apes, both of which I missed. (Beneath is on as I type but while I caught a bit of it I watched the news instead.)
🐵 🐵 🐵 🐵 😬
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hobnob53
10 years ago
Actually, I only saw the very end of Planet of the Apes anyway. I was watching an episode of Gunsmoke on the Encore Western Channel instead. And Beneath is only barely a Heston movie, akin in that sense to your favorite CH film of all, Tim Burton's remake of POTA.
As to the news, once in a while I do have to keep up with what's happening in the world. Just last night I saw this alarming report about a bunch of subterranean humans who've stored away a thermonuclear bomb and are threatening to blow up some kind of zoo I think. Terrible.
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OswaldshotKennedy
10 years ago
Yes, hob, I'm forever reflecting on the ironic things I do and say, its my hobby. I like what Chuck said about the internet, it really is for lonely people. There is really something sad about sitting down in front of a computer screen and typing stuff to complete strangers ... it is sad and lonely (unless you have a house full of noisy gits still celebrating Christmas!)
The internet is for lonely people. People should live. Charlton Heston
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