Logan's Run is an American science fiction television series, a spin-off from the 1976 film of the same name. The series starred Gregory Harrison as Logan 5 (the title character), Heather Menzies as Jessica 6, and Randy Powell as Francis 7. This series was aired on CBS from September 16, 1977, to February 6, 1978.
The series maintains the basic premise and visual style of the film in that Logan and Jessica have escaped from the "City of Domes" so that they will not have to die upon reaching the age of 30. The series differs from the plot of the movie in various ways, and depicts Logan and Jessica on the run in each episode in various locations on future Earth as they search for the mythical place known as "Sanctuary". Logan and Jessica are also assisted in each episode by an android called REM (acronym for Reclective – meaning self-programming, problem-solving – Entity Mobile), a character created for the series and played by Donald Moffat.[1]
The series lasted only 14 episodes before it was cancelled due to low ratings. The last three episodes were aired in syndication only.[2][3]
Plot
[edit]The series depicted Logan and Jessica escaping from the City of Domes only to be pursued by Francis (Randolph Powell) and various other Sandmen. Traveling in the "SolarCraft," a futuristic hovercraft-like vehicle which they find in an abandoned building in the remains of Washington, D.C., they embark on a trek through the post-apocalyptic United States to find Sanctuary. On their journey, they encounter strange human societies, robots and aliens. The domed city (including Carousel) was seen only in the pilot and two other episodes, using recycled footage from the film. In a change from the book and film, the television series had the city secretly run by a cabal of older citizenswho promised Francis a life beyond the age of 30 as a city elder if he can capture the fugitives. Logan and Jessica were joined on their journey by an android named Rem (played by Donald Moffat), whom they encounter in a futuristic city run by robots.
Cast
[edit]- Gregory Harrison as Logan 5
- Heather Menzies as Jessica 6
- Donald Moffat as Rem, an android whose technological skill and tools often help the runners.
- Randy Powell as Francis 7 (only appears in six of the fourteen episodes all the main cast members were credited with)
Production
[edit]Writing
[edit]D. C. Fontana served as story editor and worked alongside several other writers from Star Trek as well as one of the original novel's authors. Executive producers were Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, who had created Charlie's Angels the year before.
The pilot episode, which began with a condensed retelling of the original film's concept was written by William F. Nolan, co-author of the original novel, with Saul David, the original producer of the film and the TV series (until he was dismissed), and series producer Leonard Katzman. When the pilot was presented to the network, CBS asked to have part of the pilot re-shot with changes to the plot, including the introduction of a cabal of city elders who secretly ruled over the Domed city. This change alters Francis 7's motivations for pursuing Logan. In the film, his intent is to kill Logan for betrayal, but due to the introduction of the cabal, Francis is offered by them the chance to live beyond age 30 as a reward for bringing Logan and Jessica back to the city.
Goff and Roberts were brought on board by MGM when original producer of the TV show (and producer of the film) Saul David was fired from the project and the pilot episode went through reshoots, rewriting and re-editing prior to being green-lit for production as a series. The line producer for the series was Leonard Katzman.
Fontana commissioned Harlan Ellison to write a treatment for one episode ("Crypt" which was heavily revised) and David Gerrold to write a teleplay ("Man Out of Time"). Gerrold's script was rewritten by someone else, prompting Gerrold to use his pen name "Noah Ward" (a homonym of "no award") on the episode.
Casting
[edit]In a 2017 interview, Heather Menzies stated that Dirk Benedict and her Sound of Music co-star Nicholas Hammond also auditioned for the role of Logan 5. When asked for her opinion on the series' quick demise, she replied: "I think they needed to spend more money on the visuals. Star Wars came out around that time and we couldn't really compete with that".[4]
Music
[edit]The series' main theme tune was composed by Laurence Rosenthal. Most of the Incidental music was also by Rosenthal, Some additional music was composed by Bruce Broughton, Jerrold Immel. But there are many tunes in the series taken from various library music album. Some says it's from Chappell Records.
Episodes
[edit]| Nº | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Logan's Run" | Robert Day | William F. Nolan, Saul David and Leonard Katzman | September 16, 1977 | |
75-minute pilot episode: In the 23rd century, survivors of a nuclear war live in a domed city where they are allowed to stay alive only until age 30. "Runners", who refuse to die in the extermination ceremony known as Carousel, are hunted down and killed by enforcers called Sandmen. Logan is a Sandman who's begun to question the system, and he and a woman named Jessica leave the city to seek a mysterious place called Sanctuary, pursued by a trio of Sandmen led by Francis. While exploring the ruins of Washington, D.C., Jessica and Logan discover a solar-powered hovercraft, and use it to flee the Sandmen. They find a colony of people living in an ancient fallout shelter, where they find an older man who knows something about the war and once met another runner. The colony is harassed by horse-mounted "riders" armed with laser rifles, but manage to storm the rider's base with Logan's help. Jessica and Logan then move on and find their car guided by a remote-controlling beacon to the entrance of a "Mountain City" whose inhabitants are ignorant of wars, runners, other cities, or even the concept of death, and greet them with advanced technological comforts. The city has no children, and is run by "masters" who turn out to be the skeletal remains of humans; its current inhabitants are revealed to be robots who will serve human visitors but do not allow them to leave. Logan and Jessica manage to escape and are joined by Rem, a more advanced "android" who works at repairing other robots but who has always wanted to escape to the outer world, as the Sandmen are captured by the city's robots. | |||||
| 2 | "The Collectors" | Alexander Singer | James Schmerer | September 23, 1977 | |
Logan and Jessica are abducted by John the Protector and Joanna, aliens from another planet who are manipulating their minds, making them believe that they have found Sanctuary. But they are not alone in their captivity. Trivia: This was a reunion of actresses Angela Cartwright and Heather Menzies. They both starred in The Sound of Music as sisters, Brigitta and Louisa von Trapp, respectively. Note: Randy Powell does not appear in this episode. | |||||
| 3 | "Capture" | Irving J. Moore | Michael Edwards | September 30, 1977 | |
After stopping by a river, Logan's group is briefly recaptured by the Sandman who have escaped from the Mountain City and found their own, smaller solar car. It is revealed that Rem is programmed not to harm humans, but is nevertheless clever enough to turn the tables on their captors without direct violence. A hunter named James Borden (Horst Buchholz) and his wife Irene (Mary Woronov) capture the Runners and Francis. Logan's crew and the Sandmen must cooperate to escape. | |||||
| 4 | "The Innocent" | Michael Preece | Story by : Ray Brenner Teleplay by : Ray Brenner and D. C. Fontana | October 10, 1977 | |
Logan, Jessica and Rem encounter a young woman named Lisa, whose parents left her alone with two robots for company. Lisa has a crush on Logan and plans to get rid of Jessica so she can have him for herself. More teams of Sandmen join the chase and Lisa threatens to turn Logan over to them, but relents and frees his group. | |||||
| 5 | "Man Out of Time" | Nicholas Colasanto | Noah Ward (David Gerrold) | October 17, 1977 | |
Scientist David Eakins time-travels 200 years into the future, where he encounters Logan, Jessica and Rem. He then plans to change history and prevent the nuclear war, but in the process he could erase the existence of the Runners' world. Note: Randy Powell does not appear in this episode. | |||||
| 6 | "Half Life" | Steven Hilliard Stern | Shimon Wincelberg | October 31, 1977 | |
Logan, Jessica and Rem are attacked by two bands of duplicate humans with vastly different temperaments: one group is kind and gentle while the other is violent and vicious. Jessica is captured and split into two different persons with completely opposite temperaments. Note: Randy Powell does not appear in this episode. | |||||
| 7 | "Crypt" | Michael Caffey | Story by : Harlan Ellison Teleplay by : Al Hayes | November 7, 1977 | |
The Runners find an underground room with six selected survivors of the nuclear holocaust, chosen to rebuild civilization, cryogenically preserved. They need a cure for a plague from the past, but there is not enough medicine for all of them. Note: Randy Powell does not appear in this episode. | |||||
| 8 | "Fear Factor" | Gerald Mayer | John Sherlock | November 14, 1977 | |
The Runners are captured by scientists of an authoritarian, concealed city who plan to use Logan in their experiments to remove all human fears and to create a powerful army. Note: Randy Powell does not appear in this episode. | |||||
| 9 | "The Judas Goat" | Paul Krasny | John Meredyth Lucas | December 19, 1977 | |
A Sandman is given plastic surgery to appear as the runner Hal 14 (Nicholas Hammond), one of Jessica's friends. He is sent on a covert mission to try to persuade Logan and Jessica to return to the City to supposedly help other Runners escape to the outside world. Trivia: This was a reunion of actors Nicholas Hammond and Heather Menzies. They both starred in The Sound of Music as brother and sister, Friedrich and Louisa von Trapp, respectively. Note: Randy Powell does not appear in this episode. | |||||
| 10 | "Futurepast" | Michael O'Herlihy | Katharyn Powers | January 2, 1978 | |
Logan and Jessica are accidentally put to sleep by a dream analysis machine controlled by a female android named Ariana. Logan dreams he is back in the City of Domes being interrogated by the Sandmen about how he found Sanctuary. Jessica dreams she is being forced to take part in Carousel. | |||||
| 11 | "Carousel" | Irving J. Moore | Story by : Richard L. Breen, Jr. Teleplay by : D. C. Fontana | January 16, 1978 | |
Strangers shoot Logan with a dart containing a serum that erases his memory. Francis then takes him back to the City to testify against Sanctuary and to be terminated via Carousel. Jessica and Rem try to save Logan and retrieve his memory. | |||||
| 12 | "Night Visitors" | Paul Krasny | Leonard Katzman | January 23, 1978 | |
The Runners stop at a house haunted by spirits from another time. Jessica is captured so that one of the spirits can use her as the receptacle for his dead wife's spirit. Note: Randy Powell does not appear in this episode. | |||||
| 13 | "Turnabout" | Paul Krasny | Story by : Michael Michaelian Teleplay by : Michael Michaelian and Al Hayes | January 30, 1978 | |
The Runners are captured by backward desert dwellers and condemned to death. Francis attempts to rescue Logan and Jessica. | |||||
| 14 | "Stargate" | Curtis Harrington | Dennis O'Neil | February 6, 1978 | |
The Runners encounter aliens from a much hotter planet who need parts from Rem to bring others of their kind to Earth. | |||||
Distribution and merchandising
[edit]Despite its brief run, the show was sold overseas. It was shown in the United Kingdom by the ITV network in early 1978, though times varied per region. It was also shown in Australia late 1977, in France in 1978, in Spain in 1982 and in Italy in 1984. It was also broadcast on Channel One in New Zealand.
The Mego Corporation had planned to release a line of Logan's Run toys in conjunction with the series. Prototypes were made for several 10-inch (25 cm) action figures, but the cancellation of the show prompted Mego to change their minds and cancel production.[5]
Home media
[edit]The complete run of the series was released by Warner Home Video on Region 1 DVD on April 10, 2012.[6]
Logan's Run is a 1976 American science fiction action film[5] directed by Michael Anderson and starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Farrah Fawcett, and Peter Ustinov. The screenplay by David Zelag Goodman is based on the 1967 novel Logan's Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. It depicts a future society, on the surface a utopia, but soon revealed as a dystopia in which the population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by killing everyone who reaches the age of 30. The story follows the actions of Logan 5, a "Sandman" who has terminated others who have attempted to escape death and is now faced with termination himself.
Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film uses only the novel's two basic premises: that everyone must die at a set age, and that Logan and his companion Jessica attempt to escape while being chased by another Sandman named Francis. After aborted attempts to adapt the novel, story changes were made, including raising the age of "last day" from 21 to 30 and introducing the idea of "Carrousel" [sic] for eliminating 30-year-olds. Its filming was marked by special-effects challenges in depicting Carrousel and innovative use of holograms and wide-angle lenses.
The film won a Special Academy Award for its visual effects and six Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film. A spin-off TV series aired in 1977–1978 on CBS for 14 episodes.
Plot
[edit]In the year of the city 2274, the remnants of human civilization live in a sealed city beneath a cluster of geodesic domes, a utopia run by a computer. The citizens live a hedonistic lifestyle, but everyone must undergo the rite of "Carrousel" when they reach the age of 30. They are killed under the guise of being "renewed". Each person is implanted at birth with a "life-clock" crystal in the palm of the left hand; this crystal changes color as they get older, and blinks as they approach their "Last Day". Most residents accept this alleged chance for rebirth; those who attempt to flee the city are known as "Runners". An elite team of huntsmen known as "Sandmen" are assigned to pursue and terminate Runners if they try to escape.
Logan 5 and Francis 7 are both Sandmen. After terminating a Runner, Logan finds an ankh among his possessions. That evening, he meets Jessica 6, a young woman also wearing an ankh pendant. Logan takes the ankh to the computer, which tells him that it is a symbol for a secret group whose members help the Runners find the "sanctuary", a mythic place where they will be safe to live out their lives.
Logan learns that the Sandmen have lost 1,056 Runners this way. The computer instructs Logan to find the sanctuary and destroy it, which he must keep secret from the other Sandmen. The computer changes the color of his life clock to flashing red, suddenly making him four years closer to Carrousel. Logan asks whether the four years will be restored to him when his mission is completed, but receives no response. Logan meets Jessica and explains his intention to run. They meet with the underground group that leads them to the periphery of the city.
Logan learns that the ankh symbol is a key that unlocks an exit from the city. They emerge into a frozen cave, with Francis pursuing them. In the cave, they meet Box, a robot designed to capture food for the city. Logan discovers that Box also captures escaped Runners and freezes them for food. Before Box can freeze Logan and Jessica, they escape, causing the cave to collapse on the robot.
Once outside, Logan and Jessica notice that their life clocks no longer function. They see the Sun for the first time and discover that the remains of human civilization have become a wilderness. They explore an old, seemingly abandoned city that was once Washington, D.C. In the ruins of the United States Senate chamber, they discover an elderly man living with many cats. The old man recounts what he remembers about what happened to humanity outside the city, and Logan realizes that Sanctuary is a myth.
Francis has followed them, and he and Logan fight. Logan fatally wounds Francis; as he dies, Francis sees that Logan's life clock is clear and assumes Logan has renewed. Logan and Jessica persuade the old man to return to the city with them as proof that life exists outside the city. Leaving the man outside, the two enter the city via an underwater tunnel and try to convince everyone that Carrousel is a lie and unnecessary. They are captured by Sandmen and taken to the computer, which asks Logan whether he completed his mission.
Logan insists that there is no Sanctuary. The computer overloads after scanning Logan's mind to determine the truth, causing the city's systems to fail violently and release the exterior seals. Logan, Jessica, and other citizens flee the ruined city. Once outside, the citizens see the old man, the first human they have met who is older than thirty, proving that they can, indeed, live their lives much longer.
Cast
[edit]
- Michael York as Logan 5
- Richard Jordan as Francis 7
- Jenny Agutter as Jessica 6
- Roscoe Lee Browne as Box (voice)
- Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Holly 13
- Michael Anderson Jr. as Doc
- Peter Ustinov as Old Man
- Randolph Roberts as 2nd Sanctuary Man
- Lara Lindsay as The Woman Runner (and the uncredited voice of the City computer)[6]
- Gary Morgan as Billy
- Ashley Cox as Timid Girl
Production
[edit].jpg)
Development
[edit]MGM's early attempts to adapt the book led to development hell.[7] Producer George Pal's attempt was troubled in 1969 by competing views of what the film's story should be, including the possibility of incorporating symbolism of real-life issues, in comparison to screenwriter Richard Maibaum's vision.[8]
Rewriting Maibaum's screenplay would have taken between two and three months, and the budget would have had to have been reassessed. Pal became concerned the delays would cause the film to miss the wave of success science fiction was enjoying with 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes in 1968.[8]
American International Pictures offered to buy Pal's projects, including Logan's Run, for $200,000, but MGM declined, only willing to accept a minimum of $350,000.[7] Pal left the project to produce Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975) for Warner Bros.
Saul David assumed responsibility in 1974, with Soylent Green author Stanley R. Greenberg assigned to write. Greenberg devised the idea of Carrousel, but afterwards dropped off the project.[7] David Zelag Goodman wrote a nearly completely new screenplay, raising the age of death from 21 to 30 to allow for more actors to be considered for casting.[7]
Casting
[edit]York, Agutter, and William Devane were cast in the lead roles, with Devane announced to play an "elite" Sandman in May 1975.[9] Devane withdrew from the project and replaced Roy Thinnes in Alfred Hitchcock's 1976 film Family Plot.[10]
Stepping in for Devane was Richard Jordan, best known for his performances in Lawman (1971), Chato's Land (1972), Rooster Cogburn (1975) and the 1976 TV mini-series Captains and the Kings. York had previously appeared in Cabaret(1972), The Three Musketeers (1973) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974), while Agutter was best known for The Railway Children (1970) and Walkabout (1971).[11] York and Agutter were 33 and 23 respectively, casting made justifiable by Goodman raising the age of death to 30.[7]
In September 1975, it was announced Peter Ustinov would play "the last man alive in Washington, D.C." in the film.[12]Farrah Fawcett has a small role, but her rising celebrity in television earned her a prominent credit (as Farrah Fawcett-Majors).[13]
Filming
[edit]Special effects artists L. B. Abbott and Glen Robinson regarded Carrousel as the most difficult part of the film to portray, requiring hidden wires to depict the levitation.[14] For the scene in which Logan is interrogated by the Deep Sleep central computer, it was decided that genuine holograms would be the most convincing, with Saul David advocating that a new hologram effect be created.[14] The robot character Box was portrayed by placing actor Roscoe Lee Browne in a robot costume.[15] Rainbow tape had just been invented and was used on the models for the city scenes. It gave a futuristic effect.
The filmmakers also made use of wide-angle lenses not generally available.[14] It became the first film to use Dolby Stereo on 70 mm prints.[16] Nine entire sound stages were used at MGM in Culver City, California, hosting a miniature city among the largest of its kind built to date.[17]
Producers saved $3 million by finding readily available locations in numerous Dallas buildings, including the Apparel Mart at Dallas Market Center (The Great Hall), Oz Restaurant and Nightclub (The Love Shop) and Pegasus Place (Sandman headquarters), the Fort Worth Water Gardens, and the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston.[14] The Sewage Disposal Plant in El Segundo, California was used for the underground escape sequences.[18]
Post-production
[edit]Post-production took eight months, including completion of the score.[19] The score was composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith, with orchestrations by Arthur Morton. The score "adheres to two distinct sound palettes: strings, keyboards and abstract electronics only for cues inside the City and full orchestra for outside".[20] The first release of portions of the score was on LP released in 1976 by MGM Records.[21] The complete expanded and newly remixed score was issued on CD in January 2002 by Film Score Monthly.[21]
The film was previewed for test audiences prior to its release. A few sequences were edited or shortened as a result. These included a longer sequence in the ice cave, where Box asked Logan and Jessica to pose for his ice sculpture. This was cut due to extensive nudity so that the film could receive a PG rating (PG-13 did not exist yet) and for length.[22] Other scenes were removed, including a sequence where Francis hunts down a runner by himself at the beginning of the film. Other sequences were trimmed to include a "... knock-down, drag-out fight" scene between Jessica and Holly 13.[23] Some of these scenes are featured as extras in the 1998 DVD release. Other scenes survive in the shooting script, but the footage appears lost.[11] At the end of the process, the budget had escalated from the projected $3 million to $9 million, an expensive film for 1976.[19] It was noted for being the most expensive MGM film made in 10 years, with most of the budget going to the sets.[24]
Themes
[edit]Logan's Run explores utopian and dystopian themes, with the idea that characters willingly die instead of reaching advanced ages, reflecting the idea that "utopias require its participants to give something up in order to create harmony and uniformity".[25] Common dystopian themes include an evil ruling authority, the confiscation of children from parents,[26] life in a city, and the idea of human overpopulation, in this case, causing the protagonists to leave the urban environment.[27]
Prominent concepts in the film are "the dangers of hedonism, youth worship, and, particularly, the dangers of government-sponsored euthanasia".[28] The hedonism is primarily conveyed in the form of sensuality and "images of sexual abandon".[29] Aside from sexual freedom, the pursuit of pleasure is also reflected in how this was envisioned in the 1970s, including miniskirts, little career, relaxed gyms, and Farrah Fawcett's "shag" haircut.[30] Author Barna William Donovan argues this serves to criticize many social developments underway in the 1970s, targeting the "Me generation".[31] Writer Robert Tinnell hypothesizes the design of the city, reminiscent of a shopping mall, is also suggestive of "anticonsumerist sentiment".[28] The film may ultimately serve as a warning against overthrowing older generations, aimed at young viewers following the counterculture movements in the 1960s.[29]
Another interpretation is that individualism, the "freedom to live and be", is curbed by "social mechanisms" telling citizens to have a good life for only a limited time.[32] Logan, originally part of an "artificial society" centered on "pleasure and spectacle", becomes "re-individualised" and defies a "conformist system".[33] Despite the reflections of the 1970s, Donovan argues the film may also have relevance to the Internet age, with elements evocative of online dating.[31]
Writers have also examined the film's statements on gender and race. At one point in the film, Logan asks Jessica whether she is a lesbian after she expresses no romantic interest in him. His casual, non-judgmental tone indicates homosexuality is no longer taboo in the film's futuristic society, a possible side-effect of sex no longer being related to childbearing.[34]Ultimately, author Bonnie Noonan believes the idea of returning to the concept of "beloved wife" is a sign that, in the story, women's liberation, and not technology, is at the root of the dystopia.[35]
Martin Kevorkian (Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin) argued that Box, the character voiced by African-American actor Roscoe Lee Browne, could serve as a precursor to Darth Vader, voiced by African-American actor James Earl Jones in Star Wars (1977), in "racializing cyberphobic primers available to Generation X".[15]
Reception
[edit]Box office
[edit]In its first five days in theatres in 1976, Logan's Run grossed $2.5 million, a substantial sum at the time.[36] The film finished its run with a gross of $25 million in North America, and a solid performance in other territories.[19]
The film is credited with helping MGM recover from debt[19] and was a hit with young audiences in particular.[36]
Critical response
[edit]The film received a generally mixed response.[19][22] Roger Ebert gave the film a three-star rating, calling the film a "vast, silly extravaganza", with a plot that's a "cross between Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars and elements of Planet of the Apes" and "that delivers a certain amount of fun".[37] Variety staff called the film "rewarding" in its escapism and intelligence.[38]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times was less positive:[22]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film zero stars out of four, calling it "unquestionably the worst major motion picture I've seen this year". He described the technological gadgets as "lackluster" and the script "loaded with stupidities that had a preview audience laughing in derision". What he found "most contemptible is the way the film never justifies any of its characters' behavior. Jessica's subversive group doesn't do anything except hide in what looks like a boiler room. The main story of Logan's flight consists of a simple fistfight". He concluded, "Logan's Run is an artistic con job from beginning to end".[40]
New York was also negative, writing that the film was "yet another of those tiresome world-after-the-holocaust bits" and "hardly a hop for your money". However, the review complimented York and Agutter as "gifted".[41]
Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times was mixed, writing that "its visual razzle-dazzle ... propels Logan's Run past some foolish concocting, indifferent acting, slow pacing and uncertain toning".[42]
In 2000, Ian Nathan wrote in Empire that the film "can't escape its '70s origins", but contains "warnings about decadence, ageism, and allowing technology and science to run riot, done to a disco groove".[43] In his 2015 Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin gave the film two stars, finding the first half "dazzling" and the second "dreary".[44] In 2015, Rolling Stone named it 27th among the 50 Best Sci-Fi Movies of the 1970s.[45] The film has a 58% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 36 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Logan's Run overcomes its campier elements and undercooked plot with a bounty of rousing ideas and dashing sci-fi adventure".[46] On Metacritic it has a score of 53% based on reviews from 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[47]
Inverse writer Ryan Britt argued in 2023 that the film is superior to the novel, which he notes won no awards and is not highly regarded by science-fiction enthusiasts. He granted that the story's premise, which he attributes to speculation as to what the world might become if the youth of the late 1960s did, in fact, run it, "hasn't aged well". But the film streamlines the plot by limiting Logan's and Jessica's odyssey across North America and eliminating entirely their ultimate escape to Sanctuary, in orbit around Mars, in favor of their return to the city, where they tell everyone they can live past 30 and begin the process of reforming their society. "For this reason alone, Logan's Run will live on as a movie rather than a book", Britt concludes. "In writing the screenplay, what David Zelag Goodman understood was something Johnson and Nolan overlooked ... At some point, [the story] can't just be about running away."[48]
Accolades
[edit]At the Academy Awards, the film won a Special Academy Award for visual effects, tied with the 1976 remake of King Kong, indicating that Logan's Run made its mark in visual and special effects for which few previous science fiction films had a sufficient budget.[49] Logan's Run was very popular at the Saturn Awards, winning the six awards, including Best Science Fiction Film.[50] The film was also in competition for the Golden Prize at the 10th Moscow International Film Festival.[51]
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipients | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | March 28, 1977 | Best Art Direction | Dale Hennesy and Robert De Vestel | Nominated | [52] |
| Best Cinematography | Ernest Laszlo | Nominated | |||
| Special Achievement | L. B. Abbott, Glen Robinson and Matthew Yuricich | Won | |||
| Hugo Awards | September 2 – 5, 1977 | Best Dramatic Presentation | Michael Anderson | Nominated | [53] |
| Nebula Awards | April 30, 1977 | Best Script | David Zelag Goodman | Nominated | [54] |
| Saturn Award | January 15, 1977 | Best Science Fiction Film | Logan's Run | Won | [50][55] |
| Best Cinematography | Ernest Laszlo | Won | |||
| Best Art Direction | Dale Hennesy | Won | |||
| Best Set Decoration | Robert De Vestel | Won | |||
| Best Costumes | Bill Thomas | Won | |||
| Best Make-up | William J. Tuttle | Won |
Legacy
[edit]Inspired by the film's success with young viewers, CBS and MGM Television paid Nolan $9 million to base a television series on the film. The resulting series, Logan's Run, starring Gregory Harrison and Heather Menzies, began with Logan and Jessica escaping the domed city, then showed them encountering various obstacles in their quest to find Sanctuary. The series debuted in September 1977, and ran for 14 episodes before being cancelled.[56] MGM had also expressed interest in adapting Nolan's sequel novel Logan's World, but Saul David had opted to focus on the television series instead.[57]
Marvel Comics published a short-lived comic book series in 1977, with George Pérez drawing five issues between January and May 1977, with "acceptable" sales.[58] The comics adapted the film's story in five issues and briefly continued beyond but was ended when Marvel realized they only had the rights to adapt the movie and not to continue beyond. In his art, Pérez sought to follow the art direction of the film.[59] The book was cancelled after issue #7 in July 1977 on a cliffhanger.[60]
A possible remake of the film, or second adaptation of the novel, has been under development since the mid-1990s by producer Joel Silver and Warner Bros., which owns the filming rights.[61] Directors who have been attached to the remake since then include Skip Woods,[62] Bryan Singer,[63] Joseph Kosinski,[64] Carl Erik Rinsch,[65] Nicolas Winding Refn[66] and Simon Kinberg.[67] Screenwriters attached to the film, who in some cases wrote a screenplay, include Ethan Gross and Paul Todisco,[63] Dan Harris,[68] Christopher McQuarrie,[69] Alex Garland,[65] Andrew Baldwin,[66] Ken Levine[70] and Peter Craig.[67] Various directors have stated that they wished to make a film adaptation that was closer to the novel than the original film had been; conversely, in 2015 the idea was floated to give the remake a female lead, based on the success of the female-driven dystopian Hunger Games and Divergent film series.[71] In 2021, the blog Gizmodo speculated that the remake project was dead for the foreseeable future, after Silver, who had spearheaded the project throughout, resigned from his own production company in 2019.[72]
In 2000, Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Brian Reitzell released an electronica album called Logan's Sanctuary, conceived as the soundtrack for an imagined sequel to Logan's Run.[73][74]
No comments:
Post a Comment