Today I finally FINALLY settle the debate of whether the famous Protosevich draft of I Am Legend is an abandoned classic
Genre: Horror/Action
Premise: In post-apocalyptic San Francisco, a man tries to survive with his dog while avoiding a new race of blood-drinking people.
About: I am Legend is a classic book. It was one of the longest running properties in Development Hell until Will Smith came along and finally turned the project into a go movie. It is widely believed that they went with a lame draft and ditched one of the best drafts of a script EVER. Which is why I wanted to read the draft they passed up. I wanted to find out if that was true.
Writer: Mark Protosevich (based on the classic novel by Richard Matheson
Details: No page numbers
Last week I reviewed a script called Cover Version, which is the script that would eventually become Yesterday. A discussion had begun brewing online about whether Richard Curtis ruined Yesterday and that the original script was much better. I read Cover Version and disagreed.
I said that, in my experience, the script that makes it to screen is the best version of the script 99% of the time. The idea that that all these movies (The Snyder Cut! The Ayer Cut!) have some masterful unamade better version somewhere back at the studio lot may sound romantic. But it’s never true. Often, the movies are just different iterations of the same material.
But this is the script they say is the exception to that rule. The Protosevich draft. It was way better than what they went with. Today I offer you another episode of, “WAS THAT OLD DRAFT REALLY BETTER THAN THE MOVIE?!”
Robert Nelville lives in the aftermath of a pandemic that nearly wiped out the entire human population. He lives amongst these things called hemocytes. These are half-vampire half-zombie things that are intelligent and want nothing more than to kill Nelville, especially their leader, Cortman, a guy who likes to wax poetic every night outside of Nelville’s heavily fortified home.
Robert spends his days foraging for food with his dog. Luckily, the hemocytes can’t survive in sunlight. So, during the day, he’s fine. But if there ever comes a time when he gets stuck out here at night, he’s screwed.
Robert’s goal is mostly to survive. But one day when he *does* get stuck in the darkness, that goal is looking unlikely. Nelville and his dog wipe out a band of hemocytes but both of our heroes end up injured. Nelville tries to save his dog but fails. Bye bye doggy.
About to give up on life, Robert finds a note in the city center from another uninfected human. He shows up to meet Anna. Soon, she moves in and the two are having sexy time. But Anna is a trojan horse working for the hemocytes! She’s able to get Nelville out and bring him back to Cortman, who drags Nelville back to his underground subway city. He’s been waiting a long time for the opportunity to kill Nelville. And now he’s going to enjoy it!
It’s been a while since I saw the movie but here’s what I remember. I remember a cool opening image of Will Smith hunting in a post-apocalyptic New York. I remember a somewhat logical storyline where he was a doctor trying to find a cure to this disease. I remember the zombies being too CG and taking me out of the movie. The moment I remember checking out was when the woman showed up. I don’t even remember why she was there or what she wanted. Probably because it was dumb.
So is the script better than that?
I mean, the bar sounds pretty low.
Hmm… I dunno.
A couple of differences I noticed right away.
The hemoctye Nelville first encounters in this draft is both clever and can speak. That made for a completely different experience than the mindless zombie bomb we got. And the second was the level of detail in the zombie hierarchy. There are a lot more layers to this foe than in the film. It feels more unique. We’ve seen plenty of mindless zombie movies already. This smart half-zombie hierarchy is what would’ve made this zombie movie different.
But after that, the drafts read surprisingly similar.
This is exactly what I was saying. They’re slightly different movies but it’d be a stretch to say this early draft is hands down better.
I liked Nelville better in the movie to be honest – how they made him a doctor (he’s a history professor in the script). That allowed him to be more active. And he also had more influence on the story. If he figures out the cure, he can save an entire race. This would’ve fixed the problem in this draft, which is that all Nelville is trying to do is survive until the next day.
Another difference was the zombie-vampires themselves. In this draft, they’re smart. They can hold a perfect conversation with you. I went back and forth on if this was a better idea or not. On the one hand, a killer species that’s just bottled up rage with no brains is terrifying. There’s no talking one of these guys out of killing you.
But in the script, you get the sense that these guys are rational. Blood thirsty and crazy. But Cortman could be reasoned with. Which is scarier? The movie version, for sure. However, by giving them personalities, the script made them more complex and interesting. That theoretically created a richer set of characters. But I’m not sure it achieved that in practice.
Like the movie, the script loses something when Anna shows up. Look, bringing a new character into a story at the midpoint is a smart idea. It creates a whole new set of scenarios that were unavailable in the first half of the script, which allows the second half of the script to feel different.
But in both situations, I never warmed to Anna. There was always something “plot-pointy” about her character. She was never a real person. She was a way to give the second half of the movie purpose and build to some sort of clear focused ending. If you ever catch yourself using your characters as plot pawns instead of really getting to know them and exploring them, check yourself before you wreck yourself.
I hate to break it to everyone but, once again, it is NOT true that some great script went unshot for some bastardized Hollywood version. This draft is merely different. And it’s not even that different. A lot of the key beats from the movie are in here as well. If you want to know what killed I Am Legend, look at the casting of Will Smith and whoever decided the hemocytes should look overly computer generated.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[x] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: The city you pick for your story matters. Each city has a unique personality that, if you do it right, should ooze into the story. Los Angeles is laid back. San Francisco super liberal. Chicago is a working class town. The ONLY thing that New York brings to the table is familiarity. That’s the only reason to set your movie in New York. Otherwise, you’re just the 500,000th movie that has set itself in New York City, ensuring your movie will feel derivative. They should’ve kept San Francisco, like we see here in this draft.
