"Logan's Run" races back to big screen

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Logan's Run" is back up and running at Warner Bros. Pictures.

Commercials veteran Joseph Kosinski will make his directorial debut on the sci-fi thriller, which has been in the works at the studio since the mid-'90s.

"Logan's Run" is best remembered as the 1976 film starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter and Farrah Fawcett, though it was based on a 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. The premise sees a future society that demands the death of everyone upon reaching a certain age. Anyone who veers from that destiny is dubbed a "runner" and is hunted by operatives known as Sandmen. Logan is a Sandman who is forced to go on the run.

While details of the new take are being kept under wraps, it is known that it will be low-tech science fiction in a futuristic setting and hew closer to the book than the 1976 movie. The new film will tackle idea of the "greater good" and people devoting themselves to an ideology blindly, while keeping the novel's concepts of runners, Sanctuary and gangs outside the system.

The project heated up at Warner Bros. in 2004 when Bryan Singer signed on to direct. He then bolted to do "Superman Returns." Robert Schwenke ("Flightplan") and James McTeigue ("V For Vendetta") were also associated with the project at various times.

Kosinski is a former architect whose specs caught the attention of "Fight Club" director David Fincher, a building buff who eventually convinced Kosinski to move to Los Angeles and make commercials. Kosinski went on to make award-winning spots for Nike, Apple and Nintendo using cutting-edge computer technology that erased the lines between reality and CGI.

Kosinski came into Warners with a presentation that included graphic art and animated previsualization that set the look, color, tone and style of the movie he wanted to make. The take jibed with Warners, now living in the post-"300" world where filmmakers can create realistic environments at more modest budgets.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter