After more than a decade in development at Warner Bros., the new version of Logan's Run was given a new lease of life earlier this year with the arrival of producer Simon Kinberg. Now he's been opening up a little on the current state of play, and on the possible plans to turn William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson's 1967 novel into a Hunger Games-style franchise.
"Logan’s Run is the granddaddy of Maze Runner and Hunger Games and so many of these books and movies now," Kinberg tells Collider. "So yeah, [Warners] are seeing it as a potentially really big franchise. The focus is on making a great movie, but there is some thought about what the future films would be and where you could take Logan in the next one."
Warners have been trying to get this one moving for at least 15 years, hiring writers and directors including Alex Garland, Will Beal, Christopher McQuarrie, Bryan Singer and Nicolas Winding Refn to work on scripts and develop ideas, with the latter bringing Ryan Gosling aboard for one of the efforts that came closest to being realised. But try as they might, none of them managed to get it to production.
Nolan and Johnson’s book – famously adapted for the screen in 1976 starring Michael York and Jenny Agutter – imagines a future society that appears idyllic, but is organised according to one tough rule: those reaching a certain age (21 in the book, 30 in the film) must report to execution chambers. Runners are those who refuse to surrender to the authorities, with officers known as Sandmen sent to track them down. York’s Logan is one such law keeper, who discovers that all is not quite what it seems. The film spawned a short-lived (pun entirely intended) TV series{
Kinberg has developed a reputation for shepherding complicated projects to the screen, parlaying writing success into his current status as a major writer/producer on at least two huge franchises including 20th Century Fox’s X-Men films and their fellow Marvel movies and Disney’s continuing Star Wars universe, which includes his work on the animated Star Wars Rebels TV series. For Logan’s Run, he’s writing a story and treatment for the new film, and producing alongside long-time trustee Joel Silver.
"There's a lot from the original movie, but a lot or reinterpretation too," he says of Logan's Reboot. "There’s a lot of world creation that’s pretty awesome as well, though ultimately that’ll be the director’s domain. We're talking to directors right now. It's definitely a priority for the studio."
Given his successful X-Men relationship with Kinberg, is it possible that Singer might find his way back to Logan's Run? As always, watch this space.