Logan's Run - a podcast by Chris, Sean, Jeremy | Force Fed Sci-Fi

This time, we review and take a look at the forgotten dystopian classic Logan’s Run and along
the way ask why do dystopian films want to take the fun out of reproduction, why only keephumans alive until 30, and how did this film get lost in the shuffle? Let’s dive in…
Logan's Run Movie Cast and Crew

Directed by Michael Anderson: The English director had previously made theoriginal film adaptation of George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 and his film,
Around the World in 80 Days, had won the Academy Award for Best Picture.Starring Michael York as Logan 5: He is more popularly known as Basil in
the Austin Powers film franchise, but had appeared in the adaptation of the popularmusical Cabaret.
Richard Jordan as Francis 7: Logan’s Run was one of Jordan’s first roles, butwould appear in Dune and The Hunt for Red October prior to his death in 1993.
Jenny Agutter as Jessica 6: This was an early film role for her as well, but hassince appeared in An American Werewolf in London and Captain America: The
Winter Soldier.Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Holly 13: She was on TV during at this time in The Six
Million Dollar Man as well as Charlie’s Angels and thus, received prominent billingdue to her rising stardom at the time.
Peter Ustinov as The Old Man: The legendary actor has won two AcademyAwards for his roles in Spartacus and Topkapi.
Roscoe Lee Browne as Box: While not exactly appearing on-screen in Logan’sRun, Browne would later become a very accomplished voice actor; The Real
Ghostbusters, Batman: The Animated Series and Spider-Man.From the Page to the Screen
Logan’s Run is based on a novel of the same name by William F. Nolan and GeorgeClayton Johnson which released in 1967. Almost immediately after the novel’s release,
it was optioned for a future film adaptation, but it labored in developmental hell for years.The producer who had originally acquired the film rights, George Pal, had differing
opinions with his screenwriters in regards as to the tone of the film. The writers originallywanted to incorporate relevant themes at the time of the late 1960’s, but Pal wanted a
more fun sci-fi romp.These rewrites caused production to be delayed as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space
Odyssey had revived the science fiction genre among audiences.Pal would later leave the project and fellow producer Saul David stepped in
with a new writing team who made significant changes from the novel to the film.For starters, the original age limit was raised from 21 to 30 to allow for a wider range of
actors and extras to be involved in the project.The biggest spectacle of the film, the Carrousel, was created specifically for
the film and is not a part of the original novel. It was simply a means to createa ceremony of sorts while the original novel simply had people"go to sleep."The backstory of the Cubs is also explained in greater detail and even giving Jessica
a friend who is part of the juvenile gang.One of the biggest changes is the idea of Sanctuary. In the film, Sanctuary is not real
while in the novel, Sanctuary does exist, but it is located on Mars and requires arocket ship to reach it.

While audiences always expect to see some changes from a film’s source material,Logan's Run does a decent job of retaining the major elements of the film, but makingit more watchable for a 1970’s movie going audience.
The Relevancy of Logan's Run
At first glance, the film seems like a campy sci-fi romp with cheesy special effects andyou’d be sort of correct, but it’s also interesting to note several major parallels to today’s
world.The major element being the reliance of technology in both the film and our
world. There’s smart homes, magnetic rail cars and a gigantic computer that seems tocontrol every aspect of the mega city.

Nearly every home today has some type of smart technology from a refrigerator to a

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