1. LOGAN'S RUN |lōgəns rən| 1.- a novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson published in 1967. The story depicts a dystopic ageist future society in the world of 2116 in which both population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by requiring the death of everyone reaching 21 years. When people reach this Lastday they report to a Sleepshop in which they are willingly executed. A person's age is revealed by their 'palm flower' crystal embedded in the palm of their right hand that changes color every seven years, turning black on a person's Lastday.

Runners are those who refuse to report to a Sleepshop and attempt to avoid their fate by escaping to Sanctuary. Logan 3 is a Deep Sleep Operative whose job is to terminate Runners.

//2.- the movie The novel was adapted in 1976 as a film, directed by Michael Anderson and starring Michael York as Logan 5 (instead of Logan 3), Jenny Agutter as Jessica 6, Richard Jordan as Francis 7 and always stunning Farrah Fawcett in the role of Holly 13. The film only uses the basic premise from the novel; everyone must die at a specific age, Logan runs with Jessica as his companion while being chased by Francis 7 .

The world is post apocalyptic and people now live inside a huge domed city and are unaware of the world outside, believing it to be a barren, poisonous environment. The motivations of the characters are also quite different in the film as well as the age of death, being 30 in the film. Instead of reporting to a Sleepshop, citizens must take part in a ritual called "Carrousel" in which they are vaporized with the promise of being "renewed".

In the movie Logan 5 is a 26 year old Sandman, sent by the computer to find and destroy Sanctuary. The computer alters his palm flower (here called a "life clock") to show him as approaching Lastday, becoming a runner and escaping from the city ...

//3.- Winding Refn's Logan's Run: some production notes -according to mtv and iamrogue- In February 9th 2011, producer Joel Silver told MTV that Nicolas Winding Refn was set to direct Ryan Gosling in a new Logan's Run. Eight months later, in October 31st, Warner Bros announced that the studio had hired screenwriter Andrew Baldwin to work on the script and craft the story based on William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson.

Baldwin becomes the third writer to work on Logan's Run's remake. Previous writers attached to the project were Alex Garland and Will Beall; the latter happened to write the script for The Gangster Squad, which also stars Gosling. Prior to Winding Refn, director Carl Erik Rinsch was temporarily involved.

Ryan Gosling: -according to latimes- "Joel (Silver) said the other night, 'Take your time and make it good. It doesn't have to be ready at any point' ... We'll put together a team of futurists and artists and we'll dream on this world"

Winding Refn: -according to latimes- "They've been trying to make it for years with the notion of just trying to remake the original movie and it has to be rethought"

On the right 1976 Logan's run poster artwork by charles moll design by Bernis Balkind

//4.- Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Windinng Refn on Logan's Run -screenrant.com- When asked about the project Gosling confessed:

Ryan Gosling: "I don't care about it, but Nicolas does. I came to him with this (“Drive”) and I said. ‘I want you to make this film.' He said 'okay'' then he came to me with"Logan's Run" and he said, ‘now it's your turn' "

According to Gosling, he has not yet seen the original film, and while he does plan to do so, he does not feel that it will affect the version of Logan's Run that he and Winding Refn are developing.

Ryan Gosling: “It's so different from our idea for ‘Logan's.' We want to go back more to the book. We also have other ideas. That film was shot in a mall in the seventies and I can't see how it would influence me.”

Winding Refn: -denofgeek- "We're doing Only God Forgives at Christmas, so we'll see about Logan's Run afterwards. But I really want to do Logan's Run, it's something I'm highly prioritising, but I'm still working on the script, so we'll have to take it one step at a time. And when you're dealing with such a big movie, a lot of people need to be involved later on, so you just go with it and hope it'll work out. It's a huge franchise, and Warner Brothers only make huge franchises. We're in the big league with a film like this"

//5.- Nicolas Winding Refn updating Logan's Run script -io9.com- Io9 had the chance to interview Nicolas Winding Refn at the roundtables at Comic-Con 2011 and asked him about his plans on altering Logan's Run for modern day audiences.

Winding Refn: "I have done this, I've gone back, and I've seen the movie, I've seen the TV show and I've started to read the novels. I've read the first one. And I'm beginning to get an angle on it that I think could be interesting. I think the challenge with Logan's Run is that the premise is so brilliant, that the payoff will almost always be disappointing. Except, if you come up with something really, really, really, really brilliant.

I think it needs to be altered, because everything in Logan's Run became true, and more in our society nowadays. So it's thinking 'What would Logan's Run feel like if it was written today, about 2,000 years into the future?' ...

To the question 'how did Logan's Run come true since the book came out', Nicolas Winding Refn replied:

Winding Refn: "You can kind of say the obsession with youth culture, the open sexuality, the drug taking. The book [deals with] a lot of sexuality. It was written in the 60s and it had a lot of political undertones. And all that we've gone through. The original film version is very different from the novel. I think the novel has a lot more going on that could be interesting to work with. Not just remaking the original movie. Which I think is the main problem and the reason why [a new film version] was never made. Everybody tried to remake the movie, which itself is dated"

 

//6.- work in progress ... to be continued