Logan's Run: Me and William F. Nolan

A couple months ago I drove to Portland with my girlfriend Natalie, to accept a plaque at the Hometown Video Awards. I helped my uncle edit a few of his 16mm shorts that he passed around the festival circuit, and “Hometown” was one he would be attending.

My uncle brought a star to the show when he invited his good friend William F. Nolan (Logan’s Run author) to the festival. After the ceremony we went to a café by Paul’s hotel where we talked about writing, show biz, books and other passionate subjects… Well, Bill and Paul did most of the talking and I soaked the information up like a dish sponge. Nolan spoke like he has never lost his love for writing; telling stories drives this man and he is very good at it. I think I surprised him because I had his book Logan’s Run memorized and some of his films as well.

I spent the month previous to the ceremony researching Nolan and came across his film, Burnt Offerings, on Amazon. It was a great picture! Burnt Offerings was directed by Dan Curtis, a classic director that usually did films for TV, starred Bette Davis, Karen Black, and Oliver Reed. The story was spotless. If you get the chance to watch Burnt Offerings and Trillogy of Terror, please do, they come highly recommended.

After our drinks we dropped Paul off at his motel and I drove Bill to his house in Washington. Natalie and I had a fabulous time talking with him. One of Nolan’s good friends was my favorite author Ray Bradbury? How nice it would be to become a fly on the wall during their writing sessions?

Nolan, invited us in his house, which as excited as we were, of course we obliged. His walls were filled with books, all read by or written by William F. Nolan, it was quite a monument. Numerous trophies, statuettes and figurines decorated the tops of his bookshelves. I gave Bill a copy of Emerald City, and he gave me permission to send him my scripts. I look forward to seeing him again.

Sci Fi Wire published an interesting article about the Logan’s Run Blu-Ray and the possibilities of a needed remake. I was not a fan of the Logan’s Run movie because it distorted Nolan’s original creation; a book that effects our generation today. The following is from the “Can the Logan’s Run Blu-ray explain the remake holdup?” article.

Science-fiction movies and TV shows with something to say are a dime a dozen, but ones that actually say something are infinitely rarer. The reason for this is that the ideas behind them are intriguing, but seldom are those successfully explored or executed; for every District 9, there are a dozen movies like The Box that just never manage to capture an audience’s attention, much less the essence of their core concept, in a way that resonates, much less entertains.

For my money, Logan’s Run is one of the genre’s revered “classics” that’s terminally guilty of being a great premise with some of the worst possible execution; Hollywood evidently agrees, which is why a number of filmmakers have tried in the past several years to remake or reinvent it for contemporary audiences. Now that Logan’s Run is being released on Blu-ray, we decided to revisit it to see precisely what it is that’s so potent in its mishmash of cultural commentary and futuristic fun, and consider what it is (other than obvious legal entanglements and such) that keeps a reimagining from coming to the silver screen.

The original film was adapted in 1976 by David Zelag Goodman from William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s novel of the same name, was directed by Michael Anderson (Around the World in 80 Days) and starred Michael York and Jenny Agutter. The story takes place in the 23rd century and follows a “sandman” named Logan (York) who becomes a fugitive, just like the people he once hunted, after he is assigned to find Sanctuary, a mythical place where people over the age of 30 survive instead of subjecting themselves to “judgment,” or termination, at a ceremony called Carousel.

Tread the rest of the article please visit Sci Fi Wire’s original post. Can the Logan’s Run Blu-ray explain the remake holdup?

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