"Renew!" shout the citizens of Carousel in 1976's Logan's Run. Are Warners finally ready to do so...?

Having lost the Alien prequel to Ridley Scott, /Film reports that commercials director Carl Erik Rinsch is in talks with Warner Bros and Joel Silver to direct this almost endlessly-delayed remake of the glossy 1976 SF outing, possibly the last of many 70s science-fiction films to deal with dystopia before Star Wars lightened the mood a little.

Rinsch is an old hand in Ridley Scott's continuing ad output, but rumours were that Fox wanted Scott too badly to bankroll another entry in (from its point of view) a declining franchise [This pretty much breaks the entire ethos of director casting for the Alien films, by the way, in which David Giler and Walter Hill always sought new talent to bring freshness to the series. But that kind of gambling seems a thing of the past in Hollywood, and thirty years of clamouring for a Scott-helmed sequel are what seems to have got the new Alien movie out of the egg at last].

Based on the 1967 utopia/dystopia SF novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, Logan's Run depicts an idealised post-nuclear society which has sealed itself into protective and idyllic domes, and keeps its population within manageable numbers by killing citizens in a supposed 'rite of renewal' at the age of 21.

The MGM 1976 adaptation of the novel had to raise the age of mandatory death to thirty, as that film was made many years before there was such an available plethora of young actors who could command box-office figures as now. This is a different age, and all rumours over the last three years have suggested that the film will return to 21 years as the maximum permitted age in the lotus-eating society.

The policemen who deal with - and kill - those who try and avoid the thinly-disguised execution ritual are the 'Sandmen', and the refugees they chase are known as 'runners', among whom the ancient Ankh symbol is a secret avatar of a mythical place of safety beyond the domes called 'Sanctuary'. Sandman Logan 5, The titular hero of the novel, is appointed by the government to penetrate the rebel group, and locate and destroy Sanctuary - but his journey turns into a moral as well as a geographical one, as he begins to question the ethics of the laws he enforces, and fall in love with young dissident 'fall-girl' Jessica 6.

If you want a rough idea of the feel of how this movie may turn out, rent Michael Bay's The Island (2005), which 'appropriated/paid homage to' practically everything from the 1976 movie.

/Film

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR SITE, AT NO COST WITH ONE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK 'LIKE' BUTTON BELOW:

If you're interested in writing for Shadowlocked (disc and screening reviews, etc, or just getting some extra coverage for your extraordinary writing talent, get in touch with us.