This is about the alternate/unused script written by John Logan (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0517589/)

For those of you who have seen the film, the basic premise is obviously going to be the same, however the character and his own personal journey through the story is quite different.  The creatures themselves were different and in my opinion, had more of a presence than in the film.

I personally found it really entertaining, just as good as the film itself, maybe even better!  I don't know why they didn't go with this script personally as it seemed fine and exciting to me, but hey, that's Hollywood baby.

I've not read the book or seen Omega Man, so can't comment on how faithful this is to the source material.

I don't want to go into too much detail in case any of you are either planning to read it or haven’t seen the film, but I would recommend it.

http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/IAmLegend.txt

Thx for the tip, I watched 'I Am Legend' last weekend and it left me somewhat unfullfilled, so I'm curious about this script.

Thanks bert.

Yeah I also found the film somewhat unfullfilling, but I quite enjoyed this script.

Neither Logan's script, nor the fabled draft by Protosevitch do anything for me. The wholesale changes made to the source material only make for a worse story, not a better one.

If it were a case such as, let's say Jaws...where there are major narrative changes and the movie ends up telling a better story, that's one case...but what's odd is how completely these writers miss the point of the book entirely. They just see it as "monster movie" material. And Logan, who at least has some kind of critical/financial credibility ( didn't he win an Oscar for Gladiator? ) turns in the worst script of all.

Just read the novel.

Thanks for this. I liked the movie, but to me it felt a little incomplete. I can't wait to read it.

I've read both the Prostevich and Logan versions, as well as the book, and the older Omega Man script, and I think each is interesting in its own right.

Matheson's story was groundbreaking because it completely changed the origin of vampirism from being a supernatural phenomenon, to a scientific one (i.e. caused by a virus). but as far as turning it into a film, it was too dated (written in the 60's I think), and the vampires were more zombie-like in the beginning. The Prostevich version was a great read, and built on the latter part of Matheson's story (i.e. of an organized vampire society that replaces humanity), and put it in a modern setting where they wage war with Neville. Logan's version is similar to Prostevich, but the major difference was that it changes the vampires and makes them feral and de-evolves them to the point where they're less human and more animal-like in nature. They're no longer intelligent or rational, as they had been in all the previous versions. I think this is a significant (and needed) change because it really differentiates them from man.

The element that each loses is the twist-ending of Matheson's short story. That when a vampire society replaces humanity, the lone remaining human becomes the boogeyman to be feared. Hence, he becomes the "Legend."  And Matheson ends his story with Neville captured and soon to be executed, while young vampire children look on at him in fear.