Greetings, friends! So I did something that you’re probably not supposed to do, and has no point other than I was interested in doing it. And maybe it might be an interesting “stunt script” (a writing sample to get attention, not to be made).
DISCLAIMER: Obviously, I do not own Logan’s Run! Warner Bros. does. They seem to announce a new film version every three to four years.
I’ve always been fascinated with the 1976 movie. I spent quite a bit of time with it, and the 1978 TV series, when we produced the FSM CDs of each.
One of the things that intrigues me the most is that the idea is so compelling: a perfect world, except you have to commit ritual suicide when you turn 30.
And yet, the film...well, it has a lot of great things in it (like the score), but’s a strange mix of heady (and sexy) but also juvenile. It also had the bad timing to be the last big sci-fi movie before Star Wars changed the genre (and VFX) for good.
I have a confession to make: I’ve never read the book.
So my TV show is based on the 1976 film. And I was trying to do “the Andor version” in that I was fascinated by the question of what a society would actually look and feel like, with real people, living under this premise?
How would you actually get people to show up on their 30th birthday to die?
So as I was thinking of this, the worst possible thing happened...I actually thought of the answers. And then I was like, “Great, now I need to write this.”
I don’t think this city sends people up to explode in Carrousel. I think it’s like a big party and they all get drunk and high and pass out at midnight, and the people slated to die just...disappear. So it’s antiseptic.
I also think that “renewal” is more literal: when you go through Carrousel, you “upload” as a digital avatar. Like a hologram, that people can still talk to, from “digital heaven.”
Otherwise, I think no way do people show up to die. They have to believe they’re just migrating into some other kind of lifeform.
Also, who takes care of the kids? It can’t all be robots. So logically there are families.
But what would it be like, as you approach 30, and everybody you’ve ever known who is older than you has gone away? It seems like a very sad world.
So these were the things that fascinated me. And eventually I had so much of it that I wrote a quick outline, and then a script of the outline, and showed a few pals who thought it had merit (and give me a few notes).
Given that I don’t have anywhere near the credits or auspices to actually pitch Warner Bros., my only creative outlet is to share with all of you nice folks.
So here you go: Logan’s Run, the TV show that will never exist!
P.S. Many thanks to Justin Olson who kindly put together the above poster.