I don't need a
Logan's Run remake but when Warner Bros hire
Nicolas Winding Refn to direct a renewal of the 60's written sci-fi tale with
Ryan Gosling to lead, based on a screenplay by Alex Garland - then I guess I have to sit up and take notice. The movie will mark the first studio tentpole for Refn, best known for directing Bronson, and also for Gosling, an actor who usually circles Indie/dramatic fare. Logan's Run is set around an idealistic 23rd century post-nuclear civilisation that is kept in order by a rite of renewal where once you reach a certain age (21 in the book, but 30 in the movie - and probably 30 again here), you must be killed off in a Holocaust style mass genocide. If you try and avoid this renewal, you are deemed a runner and you are chased by sandmen.
Deadline reports that Gosling is our new Logan 5 - the sandman who is our protagonist of the story and who decides, obviously, to run when his time comes. Michael York played him in the original...
Refn and Gosling have spent the last year working together on the actioner Drive (due in September) and Refn has made it pretty clear he wanted to follow that movie up with a big blockbuster tentpole, though he has name-dropped the Wonder Woman franchise as his preferred choice at least a dozen times. Producer
Joel Silver is the man in charge of WW, and with Warner Bros. now looking to bring that character to the small screen instead, presumably he suggested Logan's Run to Refn as an alternative and an exciting deal has been struck. Refn's movies are extremely stylised and Gosling, who was once declared the new Marlon Brando, is much more character focused and subtle in his delivery than the usual CGI driven tentpole what require. So the way this movie is shaping up is inspired. As would be the casting of Keira Knightley for the curious female role, memorably played by Jenny Agutter in the original. Knightley can currently be seen in U.K. theatres starring in Garland scripted sci-fi movie Never Let Me Go where she similarly plays a naive girl who has a limited life to live...
Although I enjoy the original movie the Logan's Run novel of 67 is at least two notches superior and with modern day special effects, a larger and more realised scope & universe, and better supporting characters (the original was somewhat lacking) there is certainly a case to be made that a cinematic do-over could be justified. And well, we won't ever turn our back on a sci-fi studio movie made by premiere talents.