PS, Anthony Stewart Head has a one-line cameo in Sweeney Todd that I forgot to mention.

t revokes all complaints

I did say I wished HBC's Mrs Lovett had been more Jilli-esque.

Which made me feel all squooshy and happy.

Frankenbuddha, the movie version of I Am Legend bears very little resemblance to the book in terms of specific plot points. There are certain scenes that echo moments from the book, but really this is a new story that uses the same premise. I was disappointed in some of the creative choices that were made--including the ending. That said, the film caught me off guard because I was expecting a big, dumb action-movie version of the book and it's not that... at least not completely. There is a real effort to replicate Matheson's tone, albeit in a different context, and it does take the idea of being the last man on earth seriously, even though it results in a few clunky dramatic moments. The filmmakers do a great job conjuring up a deserted New York and I appreciated that they kept the exposition to a minimum (there's almost no egregious voiceover either which is nice). The main quibbles I have with it, apart from any adaptation issues, is the CGI, which is surprisingly terrible, and Will Smith's tendency to let loose with "hilarious" quips at inopportune moments. They could have clamped down on that a bit more. Overall though, the movie works. It's not perfect and it's still not the book, but it's far from the disaster I was anticipating.

Thanks, Fonebone. I was pretty sure they weren't going to go with the whole last-man-on-earth becomes the new mutant civilization's devil (or bogeyman, or what have you) which I thought was the most amazing thing about the book. Oh well.

That's a pretty cool idea. Maybe I should read the book.

Yeah, the film's ending is more conventional, which is a shame, but not a huge surprise. The closest a movie ever came to recreating the book's ending was the Vincent Price version The Last Man on Earth, but even that was tweaked somewhat as I recall.

Matheson wrote the screenplay for the Price version, I think. I'm excited to see the film.

And the cuts are all very thoughtful and work to craft an entirely new version of the story that has its own internal consistency of tone. Unfortunately for my own tastes, the tone of this version did not overall work for me. It's too dour, too solemnly tragic.

I've seen some of it on youtube, and this is my problem and also the entire look of Johnny Depp and HBC. The stage version was so dirty and shabby and George Hearn and Angela Lansbury looked so ordinary. My sister commented that Sweeney Todd should like an average guy - completely normal except for a slight twinge that somewhere inside a wire got badly crossed. That's what makes it scary - that it could happen to anybody. I don't get that sense with what I've seen of the Tim Burton version.

Matheson wrote the screenplay for the Price version, I think. I'm excited to see the film.

He hated the result because they took several liberties with his screenplay, IIRC. Price ain't a bad choice, but it was low-budget, Italian-financed production, so it was never going to be the book.

Yeah, the film's ending is more conventional, which is a shame, but not a huge surprise.

See, I would have LOVED a Will Smith movie to end on that kind of note, and I think he could pull it off (after SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION I won't put anything past him acting-wise, and I don't think that was just a fluke), but he seems to have chickened out on anything that isn't an important (aka ALI) movie In fact, given all the fights on this movie, and Ridley Scott's long involvement that ended due to budget reasons, I wouldn't be surprised if keeping the ending wasn't one of the stumbling blocks. But how the HELL do you keep that title without the ending? And why? I love the book, and it's a genre classic, but hardly a title the general public is going to know by name.

Honestly, I think OMEGA MAN would have gotten more recognition, though I'd love to be wrong.

Huh, my first ever double-post. No idea why that happened.